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NELSON FAIRCHILD 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 



THIS THE PEOPLE SAW, AND UNDERSTOOD IT NOT . 
TO WHAT END THE LORD HATH SET HIM IN SAFETY 
WISDOM IV. 15, 17 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 
1907 



COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY L. N. FAIRCHILD 



%4\ 



LIBRARY of CONGRFSSj 

"lwu Cooief Received j 

SEP 16 !90f j 

Oooyriffht Entry 



^BLABsY A / aXc„ n&, j 
^r' . P ; J 



THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON 



On the twenty-first of December, 1906, 
there were held five services — at Mukden, 
at Paris, at Santa Barbara, California, at Ma- 
dison, Wisconsin, and at New York City — 
for Nelson Fairchild, Vice-Consul-General to 
Manchuria, cut down in the flower of his 
years. 

But life is not a sum of months and days, 
and to him was given time to develop into a 
completeness not often granted to age, and 
into a beauty of character which makes the 
memory of every one of his twenty-seven 
years a joyous possession to us who knew him 
best. 

There is not much to be set down in formal 
record, and his own letters best express the 
happiness which came to him so unexpectedly, 
so unreservedly at the last ; but what he seemed 
to others, and never knew he seemed, they 
themselves may be allowed to indicate. The 
recollection of a beloved friend becomes a lens 
through which we see the future no less than 
the past; and those who look at life through 
the memory of Neil Fairchild can only behold 
it magnified in love and kindness, in harmless 
gayety and never-failing courage. 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

Neil Fairchild was born, September 22, 
1879, at Holiday House, Belmont, Massachu- 
setts, the sixth in a most happy family of seven 
children. He was a delicate baby, and for a 
long time unable to take his place in the ranks 
of his sturdier brothers and sisters; he said, 
years afterwards, that he remembered always 
feeling tired when he was a child. A great ca- 
pacity for sleep was almost the only hopeful 
sign of those first years, when a large part of 
every day had to be spent on a pillow, and the 
long nights seemed but just sufficient to re- 
pair the wasted vitality of the days. One even- 
ing, coming a moment late to say good-night, 
his mother was greeted by a whisper from the 
adjoining bed: "Neil was so tired he could n't 
wait, and I said it for him: ' Now he lay mes 
down to sleep, he prays the Lord his soul 
to keep/" But in the fragile body was even 
then an unflagging spirit, and his early child- 
hood did not lack gayety or companionship, 
for Gordon, next younger, was a playmate 
who could not make too great demands on his 
slender strength, and Neil showed from the 
first a delightful readiness to take and make 
the jokes of the nursery. When he was four 
years old he was attacked by diphtheria in a 
very severe form. It was long before the anti- 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

toxin treatment, and the docStors did not ex- 
pert him to live ; but the disease, once expelled 
from his system, seemed to carry off with it 
the seeds of early weakness, and from that 
time he grew slowly but steadily stronger un- 
til he reached a vigorous manhood. 

Six months of every year were then passed 
at Holiday Farm, and the children thought it 
a paradise. The farm was full of pets, and the 
summers were never long enough, although 
Neil's part in all the games had, at first, to be 
a very minor one. His winters also were full of 
the most natural and healthy enjoyment, for 
Boston did not present any obstacle to nor- 
mal boy life. As he grew older there were 
games of prisoner's base and marbles on the 
Mall in front of his own door; hare-and- 
hounds all through the safe streets of the Back 
Bay ; and in their season, " cutting " behind the 
boobies, where almost every coachman was 
a friend, building and storming of snow 
forts, and much skating and tobogganing in 
the empty lots. But for many years the dear- 
est playground was a few square feet in a 
brook flowing through an estate near Boston, 
easily accessible on Saturdays and even in the 
short afternoons of winter. There still exists 
a map of this principality of the imagination, 
drawn and colored by Neil with the same scru- 
pulous care with which he, like all the chil- 

c * n 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

dren in school, was obliged to make a map of 
" Boston in William Blackstone's Time/' All 
the materials for adventure and travel were 
here provided; and " Tortoise Island" was to 
the little boy with two crowns already a con- 
firmation of the prophecy that he should eat 
his bread in two countries. And it is impossi- 
ble to speak, however briefly, of Neil's child- 
hood, without mention of Tug, beloved com- 
rade in all sports. Tug belonged to their eld- 
est sister, and accordingly Neil and Gordon 
became in family language "the little uncles/' 
by which name they were known long after 
they w r ere grown men. 

" It was always a pleasure to meet him in 
the street when he was a very little fellow," a 
friend of his mother has written, "because he 
bowed with such a cordial, happy smile, as if it 
were really a pleasure to see one. I remem- 
ber so well a talk I had with him one day in the 
Charles Street Garden, when he was about ten 
years old, full of a quaint philosophy of life, 
and showing such a brave, bright spirit." And 
another calls him "a dear lad, so gallant, so 
courteous to his mother's friends always." It 
must have been about this time that he met a 
lady who stopped him in mid-career. Neil gave 
her message pleasantly when he came home, 
but added: "It was most unmannerly of Mrs. 

to keep on talking to me when she must 

[3 ] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

have seen I was a hare!" His courtesy was 
equally spontaneous at home, and often very 
amusing. When he and Gordon were very 
small boys indeed, the son of some neighbours 
did a rough and overbearing thing which caused 
great excitement among the Commonwealth 
Avenue children. Their mother heard them 
discussing it one morning as she was coming 
into the breakfast-room. She paused a moment 
to consider how to present the difference be- 
tween the sin and the sinner, but Neil caught 
sight of her, got down from his chair and came 
toward her, holding out his hand. As she put 
her hand in his he made a bow and said : " Gor- 
don and I want to thank you for bringing us 
up so well." 

In 1886, Holiday Farm was sold, and after 
that the summers were almost wholly passed 
in Newport in the little house on Narragan- 
sett Bay, which stands, as a friend once said, 
" with its back to the world and its face to the 
Infinite," and to which, twenty years later, Neil 
bade an affeftionate farewell. The boys liked 
well enough the vacations spent in England 
or on the Continent, but their greatest joys 
were conne6led with the Bay, which they ex- 
plored and knew as pilots do. By this time the 
older children could all swim, and the little 
boys were learning from the "Captain" who 
hadafted as boatman on the short annual visits 

[4] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

to Newport before, and who for many years 
was the daily guardian of all the children. It 
was in his shop that they designed and built 
the fleets of toy boats for which their grand- 
mother hemmed endless racing sails, and it 
was he who taught them all in turn the man- 
agement of their catboats and the rules govern- 
ing the right of way. Fishing and family clam- 
bakes on Conanicut, — then, except for a few 
farmhouses, uninhabited, — driving through 
the quiet island roads or riding their little West- 
ern ponies over the beaches beside their father, 
filled the long holidays. Of course there were 
occasional mishaps, but they were noneofthem 
serious. Blair wrote the following account of 
one the day it happened, when he was nearly 
nine and Neil nearly seven years old: 

"A BRAVE BOY" 
"One day, on the 16th of June, I, and my bro- 
ther Neil, were fishing on the Samson's pear. 
After a while I pulled in a fish. 
Then my brother Jack came and fished for 
Neil. 

[Part 2] 
"Soon Jack pulled in a fish. 
We put him in the pail, and Jack left us. 
After a while I pulled in another fish. 
In a minute up came another fish on my hook. 

C 5-2 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

[Part 3] 
"I could not get him off the hook. 
At last I did ! 

I put him in the pail, and then took him out with 
all the other fishes to change there water. 
Neil was sitting fishing on the criscross of the 
pear. 

[Part 4] 

"I went down to fill the pail. 
Suddenly I heard a splash, I left the pail half 
full as it was. 

I ran up, and saw what it was, I ran and called 
out to the men who were building our pear — 

[Part Last] 
"Quick quick Neil has fallen in! 
The boat came so quickly that the men could 
not stop it and it jamed Neil, though it did not 
hurt him. 

I cried out Brave Boy Neil Brave Boy. 
He was saved/' 

As soon as the little boys were old enough 
for a catboat of their own the "Banjo" was 
given them, so small and light that they could 
handle her by themselves. At first they sailed 
her at the end of a long painter held by their 
brother Jack, shouting direftions from the 
pierhead; then a "law" was made, establish- 
ing bounds up and down the shore inside the 
C 6] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

traffic of the Bay. These bounds were strictly 
kept (there is no record of a "law" being 
broken, public opinion had been too firmly es- 
tablished in the nursery on the side of right ) 
and they were gradually enlarged until there 
was no longer need of limit, and the two little 
boys knew every rock and the exa<5t state of 
the tide at which it became dangerous, every 
set-back current and helpful eddy, every head- 
land and hidden harbour. They built, them- 
selves, after their own model, a square, flat- 
bottomed tender for the "Banjo/' inevitably 
called the " Banjorine," and painted her to 
match the small boats. Rather queer the older 
members of the family thought her, but she 
proved entirely seaworthy, and was always 
taken on cruises, in honourable preference to 
the other skiffs. 

The cruises were the crowning glories of 
the summers. Each lasted for two or three 
days and took place within the Bay. Fora week 
beforehand careful and exhaustive prepara- 
tions were made, and the sky was anxiously 
scanned ; not that the weather made any dif- 
ference — it was just as amusing to be wind or 
fog bound in the harbour of Prudence. Some- 
times they went alone with the boatman, some- 
times with an older brother; and once a year, 
if possible, a cruise was arranged to include 
intimate friends of their own ages. So whole 
C 7] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

summers were passed literally in and on the 
Bay, and Neil grew to have a passionate love 
for the sea. "The only out about Mukden/'he 
said, just before he left home, "is that I can't 
watch the sun set across the water/' 

When Neil was thirteen he was given his 
first gun in accordance with what had be- 
come the family custom. He showed great ap- 
titude in its use, and to the longer cruises were 
now added shorter expeditions on the Bay, 
when he and his brother Charley, the keen- 
est sportsman among the boys, went off to- 
gether in search of wild fowl, — the younger 
eager to learn, the elder to teach, the notes 
and markings of the various birds. And more 
adventurous shooting-trips took place during 
winter holidays, welcome interludes in school 
life. "I remember once/' his brother writes, 
" when he went up to Marlborough with me 
after foxes. It seemed the coldest place in the 
world, and I remember thinking what a game 
little chap he was. I could see even then in 
him the traits thatwere so marked afterwards ; 
he was always ready and careful. If we were 
going fishing or shooting early in the morn- 
ing, he would begin early the evening before 
to make sure everything was in order, and 
he noticed everything in stories or talk with 
older people relating to fish or game. When 
in the field, he would plod ahead, always 

C s 3 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

using his brain and steadily careful that we 
were working together to the best advan- 
tage/' If the game-bag returned light from 
these journeys, it yet held a great store of 
happy memories and brotherly intimacies to 
be drawn upon in the future. 

All Neil's childhood i£ full of happy memo- 
ries. His first school was Mrs. Shaw's, No. 6 
Marlborough Street, where he went a slim 
little red-haired lad, and where his sisters as 
well as his brothers went also. It was while he 
was there that Neil acquired what was hence- 
forth known as his motto. One of the school 
exercises consisted in the repeating of short 
sentences by the children in turn, at the be- 
ginning of the day. These " quotations" were 
supposed to represent the child's own out-of- 
school reading, but they were usually pro- 
vided, at the latest possible moment, by some 
older member of the family. They must be 
short, as they had to be memorized between 
the breakfast-table and the schoolroom, and 
they must pass muster, too, on the score of 
morals and fitness. One day Neil started on his 
rapid way saying over and over to himself: 
" Fear nothing ; make the best of everything," 
which had seemed to answer all requirements. 
By the time the " quotation" was called for it 
had become: "Fear nothing; take the best of 
everything." But the words are susceptible of 
[9] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

more than one meaning, and although Neil was 
greeted with shouts of laughter that morning, 
they have truly exemplified much in his life. 
" Prove all things ; hold fast to that which is 
good." 

From Mrs. Shaw's he went to Noble and 
Greenough's Day School for Boys, after it was 
removed to Beacon Street, and by his last year 
there his strength had so increased that he 
could play End on his School Eleven, although 
his weight was still under one hundred pounds. 

One of his masters, Mr. Francis Stewart Ker- 
shaw, says of this time : " The records of Noble 
and Greenough's School show that Neil Fair- 
child entered the fourth class in the fall of 
1 893, was promoted in due course fromyearto 
year, and was sent up to Harvard University in 
1897. During this period his workwas of aver- 
age quality and prosecuted with steadiness. 

" When I first knew him, Neil had arrived at 
the beginning of his final year. He was a slen- 
der boy, appearing taller than he really was, 
with a finish of manner that gave an effect of 
distance and pride. As I grew to know him 
better, this effect proved to have some shy- 
ness back of it, and a militant sensitiveness 
unusual in a boy of his years. His training 
had equipped him with a high-minded appre- 
ciation in certain matters of conduct and taste, 
an appreciation that determined especially the 

c 10 J 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

attitude of his mind toward books. Coupled 
with this was a frankly outspoken contempt 
of * cheapness ' of ideas. This feeling was not 
always ingratiating to his fellows, but it was 
always sturdy, and always commanded re- 
spect. 

" Altogether he was alad to be led,not driven; 
quick to distrust ideas that he did not under- 
stand, but possessed of the saving grace that 
he could be persuaded. In persuading him, the 
difficulty lay in showing him the limitations 
of his own experience, — an experience not 
so narrow as is usual with boys of seventeen, 
but vigorously defended by the militant force 
of which I have spoken. Fortunately that force 
was dominated by a love of fair play. Whether 
the matter of the persuasion were a matter of 
fact, of opinion, or of conduct, an appeal to 
his sense of fairness always won Neil over. 
It was an engaging characteristic, especially 
when brought into play in relation to a matter 
of conduct. He might, on occasion, test one's 
patience by persisting in a bit of mischief, or 
by obeying the letter rather than the spirit of 
one's commands, but he could always be re- 
called to fairness and he always ' took his me- 
dicine/ 

" Among his fellows Neil had an attitude de- 
finitely to be counted on ; he had no indecision 
and his opinions were outspoken. Since he was 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

also alert and ready in the matters in which 
schools make appeal to a boy's loyalty, his 
influence in his class was clearly to be seen. 
Without consciousness of the fa<5t, he had the 
weight and the power that result from definite- 
ness of character and from uprightness, clean 
tastes, and boyish kindliness/' 

Neil found no difficulty in keeping up with 
his class, but he never stood near the head. 
His interest was not in languages or mathe- 
matics, but in books as literature ; and that was 
stimulated by his mother's habit of reading 
aloud at home. Every day she read to the chil- 
dren, from the time when they sat on the arms 
of her chair and listened to Hans Andersen, 
through Cooper and Scott, Parkman and the 
" Gerard book," until they were grown up, and 
the readings, from force of circumstance, be- 
came rarer. Neil's dearest friends among books 
were made in this way, and the children all be- 
came, though quite unconsciously, very skilful 
in detecting style. "That is your Hawthorne 
voice," they would say, or " You read that like 
Thackeray." 

After the family had scattered, as grown-up 
families must, the habit of reading aloud still 
remained, although the groups shifted and 
changed like the patterns of a kaleidoscope. 
Sometimes it was a large group that gathered 
on the piazza at Newport after tea, sometimes 

C " 3 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

a very small one, as in New York, when Neil 
and his eldest sister were the only children at 
home, and in the last half-hour of the evening 
an old favourite was read or a new discovery 
shared. Of course there could be no continuity 
in such desultory and scrappy moments, but 
one custom has never yet been broken, one 
reading has remained invariable, and on the 
last night of the year as many as can be assem- 
bled have "read the New Year in" with the 
famous chapter on Habit from James's Psy- 
chology and Thackeray's verses "The End 
of the Play/' 

It was not until he was at Harvard that 
Neil's interest in history developed, but he al- 
ways cared very much for folklore, and from 
the early days of Grimm in the nursery de- 
lighted to follow the variants of the tales 
through all the different countries. He liked 
epic poems and ballads ; and certain humor- 
ous books, "Huckleberry Finn," "Happy 
Thoughts ' ' and the ' ' Bab Ballads/ ' were among 
his favourites, read and re-read. His own "li- 
brary" was one of his great pleasures. "No 
gentleman's library can be less than five hun- 
dred volumes," he used to say; and he counted 
his books anxiously from the time when they 
were only a shelf of fairy-tales in the nursery 
bookcase. Every addition was eagerly received, 
and he had a card catalogue with the date and 
L 13 ] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

any other matter connected with the book 
carefully entered. Bookplates were of great 
importance also, and at different times he had 
three, which mark the period when each was 
acquired. The last letters from Mukden have 
a red stamp on the paper to which he alludes 
as his "new Chinese bookplate/' 

It is inevitable that the record of Neil's life 
should be a family record. There are almost 
no letters from him in his school years because 
there were almost no separations. He was al- 
ways at home; and it was much more than 
merely living at home. He felt, as each of the 
children did, the common responsibility of the 
common hearth. Friends have always been 
eagerly brought to the house, and it has never 
been unusual to have some one come down- 
stairs unexpectedly to breakfast. Neil was sure 
of welcome for his friends, as he was sure to 
welcome, himself, those of any other member 
of the family." Never were there such delight- 
ful boys/' a visitor writes, "and never have 
I laughed more gayly than with them through 
those merry meals when I was with you all 
at 191. Such a fund of humour and delightful 
nonsense as Neil had, and how courteous a 
gentleman, although he was hardly fifteen!" 

Yet under the frank smile and the open 
manner have always been hidden immense 
reserves, whichfew, even of his intimates, have 

c 14] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

suspected , although they recognized the power 
of reticence which made him everybody's 
safetv-valve. All confidences were secure with 
him, from the childish secret to the troubles and 
complications of grown-up life. A college-club 
friend, an older man, writes: "Though we were 
of different ages, his nature was so sympa- 
thetic that it has often led me to confidences 
which I could not have told to another." And 
again: "I think one of Neil's most lovable 
qualities was his unconsciousness of his own 
good qualities and his admiration of those in 
others. He never spoke ill of any one, rather 
avoided the subject of people he did n't like, 
and was enthusiastic in praise of those he did." 
And his friend and room-mate, J. Grant Forbes, 
says: "Coming to Harvard from a Boston 
school, Neil had perhaps more friends than 
many of his classmates, but he lost no chance 
to make still more. His great interest from 
the start was in his fellowmen. While others 
still held together in little groups, bound bv 
ties of school or city, Neil somehow seemed 
to meet men from everywhere. Many of them 
who came, perhaps alone, from far-away places, 
were diffident about taking the first step into 
this new life. These Neil met with the same 
ease and simplicity with which he treated his 
already intimate friends. He took them to Bos- 
ton on Sunday to lunch with his family; he in- 

c 15 : 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

# troduced them to their more prominent class- 

mates, and in every way did his hospitable 
best to break down their shyness. Many a man 
I can think of now who has to thank Neil for 
inspiring him with confidence to take his pro- 
per place in the little undergraduate world/' 
But in spite of the fortunate temperament 
and the reasoned philosophy of life which 
made Neil think almost everybody "nice" 

4 with whom he came in contaft, it would be 

doing him injustice not to add that he was ca- 
pable of vehement prejudices toward both per- 
sons and things — for his nature was very con- 
servative — as well as of long-abiding dislikes. 
The prejudices were acknowledged but stoutly 
maintained; the dislikes — and there were one 
or two which must bear the darker name of 
hatreds — were grounded in what he felt to 
be some departure from the standards of hon- 
our. Of these he spoke very rarely, but when 
he did speak it was with a violence whose only 
excuse was that it measured his abhorrence 
of failure to play the man's part. His nature 
could not hold rancour or sullenness, but with 
the quick eye, quick heart and quick hand 
went also the quick temper that blazes for an 
instant and is gone, although as he grew older 
and his self-control increased, these outbreaks 
were more and more infrequent. The same 
qualities led him sometimes into extrava- 

C l6 3 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

gances he could ill afford; the value of money 
he never felt nor understood. Fertility of re- 
source was, from childhood, as characteristic 
of him as of the typical Yankee. Neil's "gim- 
let" passed into a family proverb so long ago 
that exactly what was happening when it was 
unexpectedly and providentially drawn from 
the first pocket he ever had, has been forgot- 
ten. The "gimlet" took many shapes after- 
ward, but it was always ready. His gayety 
made him everywhere a welcome companion. 
He was seldom at loss for a rejoinder, but his 
fun was never unkind, and his animal spirits 
never took the form of practical joking, though 
they were very high, and laughter seemed to 
follow where he went. It was impossible to be 
dreary or dull in his company; he had the 
"constant habit of good heart." 

All those who served him felt his thought- 
ful kindliness. "I always thank Heaven that 
I work for our Mr. Neil," Moriye, the Japa- 
nese who was in the household for years, 
writes. And another: "I can express to you 
nothing but a tear. He had been my master 
though it was 2 or 3 weeks, but the acquaint- 
ance of this time has brought me a great im- 
pression." In a letter to his mother one of 
Neil's associates downtown says: "I have sel- 
dom heard such wide-spread expressions of 
regret, and they come, too, from every quar- 

C 17] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

ter, not only his college friends and the Wall 
Street people, but from office-boys, elevator- 
men, all." "The nicest gentleman/' a chauf- 
feur calls him. 

It was not that he looked for chances to be 
kind — kindness to every living thing was in- 
stin&ive with him ; and he was never so pre- 
occupied with his own swift thoughts and 
schemes as to be oblivious. He never could 
bear to have any one left out ; whoever was 
with him, even for a short time, was made 
to share the moment, and this kindly feeling, 
combined with his quick perception, gave him 
in every relation an unfailing ta6t. 

It is an indication of character that everyone 
called him "Neil." He had a genuine faculty 
for making friends, and no one could with- 
stand the charm of his manner when he set 
himself to welcome a new-comer or to put a 
shy stranger at his ease. The last winter he 
was at home he was one evening at the Har- 
vard Club, where a newly-ele6ted member sat 
for an hour, quietly listening to the give-and- 
take of conversation where Neil's name was 
frequently pronounced. As the group sepa- 
rated at the door of the Club the stranger said : 
" What is your first name, Neil ? I should like 
to call you by that." 

The household in Boston was not broken up 
until the end of his first year at Harvard, and 
l 18 } 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

the college recesses during the next two win- 
ters were passed with his brother Jack, who 
was now married. By the time Neil was a Sen- 
ior the family w 7 as living in New York, and 
he could be at home for the winter as well as 
for the summer holidays. Harvard appealed 
to Neil's deepest loyalty and love. In his own 
family he was the fourth among the brothers 
to receive a degree, and for five generations 
Harvard had reckoned his kinsmen among her 
sons. The University was one of the great 
formative influences in his life ; and although 
his academic work was not above the average, 
in his Junior year Neil attended a course of 
lectures which changed his attitude toward 
study from theoretical to praftical, and gave 
him what became his paramount interest. It 
was the course on the Eastern Question, 
known as "History 19," given by Professor 
Archibald Cary Coolidge ; and Neil's reading 
henceforth ceased to be desultory. 

Mr. Coolidge says ■ " In the autumn of 1 897 
when I came to make out the list of students 
to whom I was to a6l as Freshman adviser I 
saw the name of Neil Fairchild among those 
who had applied for me. I had not met him 
before that I remember, but I was glad to take 
him, as I had long known many members of 
his family. Besides advising him, I had him in 
my course, History I, but the relations between 

c 19 3 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

us were more than official from the start. Dur- 
ing his college career I saw much of him in 
one way or another, and had a chance to watch 
him from several points of view. Towards the 
end of his Freshman year he was taken into 

the Club, of which I was a member and 

of which he was later president, an honour he 
well deserved, for he was very loyal to its in- 
terests and looked after them well. I recolleft 
vividly the first dinner at which he sat at the 
head of the long table. Through the Club I 
often ran across him ; he used, too, to dine with 
me occasionally or go out driving, and we had 
many talks on different subjects. In his Junior 
year he took a course under me on the history 
of the Eastern Question, the first manifesta- 
tion, I think, of his interest in Eastern affairs. 
From the very beginning of our acquaintance 
I felt the strong charm of his personality. He 
was a man to inspire affeftion ; one whom his 
friends will always be glad to have known, 
and will not forget. I had nothing to do di- 
rectly with NeiFs going to Mukden, and yet 
I feel as if I had a distinft relation of my own 
to it all. None approved of his going there 
more than I did, and few, outside of his fa- 
mily, took a keener interest in the whole thing 
and hoped more for his success/' 

After he was graduated in 1901, he went 
abroad with some college friends, and in the 

c 203 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

course of the summer took a trip to Greece 
and Constantinople with his brother Blair. It 
was the first time he had seen anything be- 
yond Western Europe, and it marked a se- 
cond milestone. Of this trip his brother has 
written : " On my way to Persia Neil met me 
in London, and we remained there together 
about ten days. It was then that I saw the Elgin 
Marbles for the first time. Neil knew them 
well, and had just been studying about Greek 
Sculpture at Harvard, so that he could tell me 
about them historically, which added a great 
deal to the immense pleasure of seeing them. 
We went to the various galleries, and in faft 
did a great deal. I had n't been in London since 
we were there together six years before, so 
that Neil afted as my cicerone and guided 
me about among the restaurants and theatres 
as well as the museums. I remember we used 
often to lunch at Hatchett's, and Neil used al- 
ways to have roast beef and potatoes, for he 
said that was distinftly English, and when he 
was in a country he believed in eating the 
food of that country, for it was probably what 
they made best: we used often to laugh about 
that, and wherever we went that summer we 
put his theory into practice. 

"We were only one day in Paris, and we 
went to Notre Dame and spent a long time 
there, Neil talking about the architecture, for 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

he cared a great deal about Gothic, though I 
think he cared more for English Gothic than 
any other kind. That night we took train for 
Italy on our way to Brindisi. Neil had been 
anxious about me, for I had been run down 
before I left home, and his tenderness and 
solicitude were wonderful, and yet he was al- 
ways so gay that he made me laugh. I had 
fainted one day, and the first thing he said to 
me when I came to was: ' Well, Blair, you're 
a most convenient person — you just said "I 
think I am going to faint" and gave me plenty 
of time/ — and after that he was always con- 
sidering me. 

" At Brindisi we had a whole afternoon, and 
took a rowboat and went out to see the old 
fortress in the bay, afterwards stripping and 
swimming from the boat — a dip in the Adriatic. 
Neil's interest never flagged for a moment, 
and he was always hearing an amusing story 
from some fellow-traveller. There was an 
Englishman on the boat from Brindisi to 
Patras who delighted him by telling him how 
Lord Elgin 'had come along and chopped 
some statues off an old temple in Athens, and 
carried them home to London.' We saw him a- 
gain on the Acropolis, andhe toldNeil the story 
once more, pointing to the 'old temple,' which 
amused Neil more than ever. From Patras we 
went to Olympia to see the Praxitiles Hermes, 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

and the next day went to Athens, where we 
stayed nearly a week, spending a great deal 
of time on the Acropolis, seeing it by moon- 
light and at sunrise, and visiting the various 
museums. It was delightful to do all this with 
him, for beside having a keen feeling for 
the beauty of what we saw he could tell me 
about it from an historical point of view, as the 
courses at Harvard dealing with the Fine Arts 
had interested him more than any excepting 
the Eastern Question. 

"We went to Constantinople by sea, arriv- 
ing in the early morning, and Neil had been 
up since before sunrise seeing all there was 
to see. He often said afterwards that this ap- 
proach was the most beautiful sight in his ex- 
perience ; and the effect of the great Eastern 
City, mosques and minarets piled up before us 
in the radiant haze, was very wonderful. We 
did n't stay in the city itself, but went to The- 
rapia, and used to come down the Bosphorus 
almost daily, and taking a guide we poked a- 
bout in the Bazaars, went into many mosques, 
and tramped all over Stamboul. It was in the 
Turkish city that Neil liked best to be — Pera 
and Galata attracted him far less. We saw 
the Sultan's palace and stables, beside the 
great show places, and Treasury, and all the 
regular sights. Neil was so eager to do every- 
thing, — yet he was always ready to take it 

C 2 3 3 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

easy, and loaf about and chat, always cheer- 
ful and gay, always quick to laugh and see 
the funny side of whatever happened, even if 
it was annoying at the time. We rode in the 
country behind Therapia, and along the Bos- 
phorus, went for longrows in caiques ;and I re- 
member one night after dinner we went over 
andlanded on the Asiatic shore, for Neil wished 
before leaving actually to set foot in Asia. 

" It was several weeks before he left me and 
returned to England, and I think he enjoyed 
being in Constantinople almost more even than 
our trip through Greece ; everything there ap- 
pealed to him, — the dirt, the dogs, the cos- 
tumes, and above all the people. He got to 
know his way about in the most surprising 
manner, and never forgetting a face, and quick 
to make passing acquaintances, it was not long 
before wherever we went he would find some 
old native he already knew. He gleaned in- 
formation everywhere, and only a few days 
after we arrived in Constantinople he was on 
most friendly terms with all the cavasses at 
the Legation, knew their histories, and had 
picked up from them all sorts of stray facts 
of usefulness or interest/' 

Neil joined his family in New York in the au- 
tumn and began work downtown, but with a 
new standard of beauty and an increased long- 
ing, which later grew into a determination, to 

n 243 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

go to the East himself; and his reading became 
as time went on even more specialized on the 
history and problems of these lands, so that 
when he was packing for Mukden, in August, 
1906, all but two of the books suggested for 
his reading he already owned, and thirty-nine 
volumes of reference were ready for his cases. 
The five years in New York made the dif- 
ference between boyhood and manhood. It was 
the beginning of regular work in an office, 
which is so unlike work in a class-room or lec- 
ture-hall. Neil was homesick, as most Bosto- 
nians are when they are transplanted, and for 
the first time in his life he found himself the 
only son at home ; the responsibilities which had 
been borne so lightly together heretofore ,were 
now to be his alone. When he was a very small 
child it once happened that a family emergency 
arose with only the "little uncles" to meet it. 
"You see," Neil explained anxiously after- 
ward, "we had to do it, because we were the 
oldest boy at home." What could better show 
the solidarity of those early years ! And in the 
same spirit he now tried to make up single- 
handed to his mother and sister for the old, 
unbroken circle. All these experiences, faced 
as he faced them, brought an increasing sym- 
metry of development, and they brought their 
own compensations also, according to the eter- 
nal law. "I don't know anybody who got as 

[> 5 n 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

much out of life as Neil did," some one said. 
In town he had the amusements that come from 
people, and at least every month in winter and 
every week in summer, he got into the coun- 
try over Sunday, and had the pleasures so dear 
to him, of space and fresh air. He found old 
friends when he came to New York, and he 
made new ones, some very dear ones; and 
above all he was again at home, and with his 
mother, who was always his dearest. " I felt, 
whenever I was with that dear boy, the times 
when he used to walk home with me after tea 
and tell me about the books he loved when 
he was a child, how much, how everything, had 
been his relation with you/' an intimate friend 
has written. Every detail of home life was of 
interest and importance to him. It was he who 
found the house in East 40th Street, where the 
last three years were spent, and where the 
balcony outside his windows gave him such 
delight in gardening. His notes written on 
week-days during the summers are full of 
anxiety about the depredations of the sparrows 
and the fate of the plants and vines he watered 
with such care. In winter his room was very 
cold, but he always went upstairs at six o'clock 
to read until he dressed for dinner. He saw, 
he said, as soon as he came to New York that 
there would be no reading without a time re- 
gularly set apart for it. It was then that most 
C 26] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

of his reading on the Far East was done, for 
he almost never took up a current novel ; but 
this was also the hour when he read his Bible, 
which he did from beginning to end, in every 
one of his later years. The same reasoning, 
that family life must be as carefully planned 
for if it is to be preserved, brought him home 
regularly at five o'clock, where he was at once 
the most agreeable of guests at the tea-table 
and the most affeftionate of sons and brothers. 
It is of this hour that a visitor writes : " He will 
always be to me a beautiful youth, making 
those he loved happy." If he were detained 
downtown, or at the Club, or if he accepted 
suddenly some invitation which did not involve 
going home to dress, Neil never failed to tele- 
phone to make known his change of plan, for 
he was as pun6tilious in small matters as if 
there were no such thing as hurry. Good man- 
ners often seem to put one at a disadvantage 
in modern life, but they sometimes bring the 
unexpected reward of amusement! One day 
on a Cross-town car a middle-aged stranger 
behind Neil kept harrying him to get off be- 
fore the car had come to a standstill. Neil 
finally squeezed aside and said: " Perhaps you 
would like to get off first?" which the other 
did, so briskly that he landed on his back in 
the wet, while Neil got off at a comparatively 
clean crossing when the car stopped, three or 
C 27 3 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

four feet further on. " The man did n't look as 
though he wanted me to help him up!" Neil 
said, in telling his family the story when he 
reached home. In his eagerness to share every- 
thing he told them a hundred stories and inci- 
dents which he afterwards forgot, they seemed 
so unimportant. But it is of such small intima- 
cies that the daily charm of family life is made. 

Neil was at home in every nursery, and was 
always particularly glad when he could see his 
niecesand nephews. The children of his young- 
er sister were often in New York, and he saw 
his brothers' also whenever he could. All chil- 
dren instinctively loved him as he loved them. 
It was a source of real happiness to him, and 
one towhich every day could bring its contribu- 
tion, since children are to be met everywhere. 
He was walking home one afternoon, with 
a friend, when he suddenly ran across the 
street and straightened a baby's cap. When 
they had come in to tea his friend said: " Neil 
finished his sentence as he stepped on the side- 
walk again just where he had left off to run 
across the street." But Neil could not remem- 
ber anything at all about it. He never had any 
self-consciousness, and the habit of help was 
really automatic. 

No pictures seem to those who love him to 
doNeil justice. There are the square shoulders 
and the stiff hair whose thickness prevented 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

the smooth look he admired and tried for; 
but the smile cannot be reproduced, nor the 
swift, responsive lighting of the whole face, 
so keenly felt by all who spoke with him. 

When he went out of an evening the flower 
from his coat, freshened by a night in water, 
was always laid at his mother's place at break- 
fast the next morning ; now and then at his 
sister's there was some favour from the dance. 
In the little language any gift is a " rich gift," 
and tradition requires that it be presented with 
the formula from Alice in Wonderland : " We 
beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble." 
The " thimble " may have no more acStual value 
than last night's flower, but love and gayety 
make it precious. 

The dearest memories cannot be set down. 
If the household had gone to bed when Neil 
came home, it was but seldom that he went 
to his own room, however late the hour, with- 
out stopping and making, very softly, a fa- 
mily signal outside his mother's door. When it 
was not answered the light foot went on its 
way upstairs ; but the day was not often ended 
without a talk with his mother. Of those hours, 
and of the deepest springs of Neil's life, his 
own reserve forbids speaking ; what he him- 
self held most sacred may not be laid bare. 
But it is still the "fruit of the Spirit," that is 
"love, joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, faith." 
[ 29 J 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

Last July, in New York, he had his third 
attack of appendicitis, when it was decided to 
operate, and he came to Newport at once for 
the purpose. It was while he was still in the 
hospital there that his heart's desire came to 
him in the opportunity to go to China, and the 
knowledge of this chance was the first plea- 
sure of his convalescence and the great in- 
centive to his rapid recovery. He was at home 
for three weeks after quitting the hospital, 
during which the happy preparations for his 
departure went busily forward, and on Aug- 
ust 2(5, he left Newport. It was a warm plea- 
sant evening, without a moon; the red and 
green fires burning side by side on the neigh- 
bouring piers showed clear in the darkness. 
The steamerwhistled her response to the part- 
ing greetings, rounded the break water,and the 
boy of many hopes was gone. 

But few months remain. On the 16th of De- 
cember he died in Mukden, by the accidental 
discharge of a pistol in his own hand. When 
the news reached America letters of help and 
comfort poured in from all sides. The follow- 
ing, although written in November by his 
Chief, since it only arrived after his death finds 
its place here: 

"You are doubtless well acquainted," Mr. 
Straight writes from Mukden, November 28, 

c so] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

"with our trials and tribulations as well as 
our simple pleasures, for I have frequently ad- 
mired the regularity with which letters are 
despatched; but perhaps you will permit me 
to add a personal word from the other side 
of the family. 

"The Vice-and-Deputy-Consul-General 
has been the greatest help in the world, and 
in my realization of the blessing of his com- 
panionship I am able to appreciate what a dif- 
ference it must make to you to have him so 
far away. His cheerfulness never falters and 
he has the temperament which alone can qual- 
ify a person for residence in strange places and 
a life that is not altogether an unbroken calm. 

"He has turned to splendidly in starting 
things off, and does not object, as many an- 
other would, to the drudgery of press copy- 
ing and recording and cataloguing, and all 
the little odd bits that have to be attended to 
in starting a new office in an old Chinese city. 

" He has been very well and seems to thrive 
in this wonderful Manchurian climate, and 
once we are running along a little more easily 
I hope that there may be more time for him 
to go shooting and tripping through the coun- 
try. There should certainly be a future in this 
work, and he should do well in case he con- 
tinues to like the service and China, both of 
which seem to please him at present. But best 
[ 31 ] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

of all his true kindliness will win many friends 
everywhere and always, so that, which is after 
all the greatest thing, should make the world 
as pleasant a place for him as he wishes to 
make it for others/' 

One after another the precious words ar- 
rived. "I don't think there is much consola- 
tion to be given or received, except the know- 
ledge that he has led a clean, straight life, has 
done evil to no man, and has, in his way 
through this world of ours, given pleasure to 
hundreds of his friends/' "Neil was to me 
what one man's friend can sometimes be, but 
he had also the intimate affeftion which one 
usually keeps for a woman ; a manly man, and 
yet with a girl's sweetness. One thing per- 
haps you can hardly realize as I, and that was 
his goodness. Neil had a record any man 
might be proud of." Many and many a letter 
from the men who knew him has sentences 
like these: "Every one who knew Neil loved 
him." "I loved Neil — it is dreadful to think he 
is gone." "I had so little share in his life, and 
yet I loved him." "I never cared for anyone 
in just the same way as I did for him." "You 
know how much I loved your son Neil." "I 
had seen but little of him, and that not for 
some time, but one of the warmest places in 
my heart was for him, and he was far more to 
me than many I knew much more intimately." 

C 32 3 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

Nothing was wanting. "It was always so 
cheerful to see Neil at the office, always bright 
and cheery, and with a kind word for every- 
body. I can truly say that his influence was a 
great help to us/' "I saw him every day, and 
every day I grew more to know and appre- 
ciate and admire him. When he went away 
I understood what he had meant to me, but I 
was glad, because I knew it was best for him." 
"Every member of the small American com- 
munity in Peking, particularly the Legation 
people, was gratified that our Government 
should have sent to China a young man of 
such exceptional personality and character/' 
"Our country needs so much men of his kind, 
and his death is a distinct loss to Her as well 
as to those who knew and loved him/' 

" He has won the racebefore the burden and 
heat of the day/' one letter says ; and another: 
"Neil has always been the sweetest and most 
sympathetic of boys, from his earliest child- 
hood, of whom I have never heard but one ac- 
count from anyone who knew him. With him, 
indeed, an unspotted life was old age." And 
one who knew him from his birth writes : " One 
of the presences that leave an unchanging 
memory, so that one always sees them at their 
best. No gentler spirit than his ever looked 
from a young face." 

February, 1907 

L S3 ] 



LETTERS FROM MUKDEN 



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Except for excisions made by the Department 
of State, such omissions as seemed necessary 
to avoid repetitions, and the substitution of 
initials for names, the letters stand as they were 
written. 



[ TO HIS MOTHER ] 

Dampfer "Bremen" 

August 28, 1906 

Dearest M — : 

We are still at the pier but start in a minute or 
two and J. C. F., Mori, C— and the R. H. D.'s 
are gone away, so all the partings are over. 
Little M — sent a long letter and six pictures, 
and outside of all the family I had letters from 
N— and G— . 

It does n't seem yet as though I were really 
off — and oddly enough I don't know where 
to, as at the last minute we booked through to 
Bremen, but I may drop off at England for a 
day or two and join Straight in Petersburg. 
J — will send you the sailing list — rather funny 
to look at. 

Of course I took a farewell look at the house 
and almost shed a tear, but after all it is n't 
for very long. 

c 37 ] 



LETTERS 

Thank all the family for their letters, and 
good-bye, with heaps and heaps of love. 

( There are some Germans talking like mad 
outside our window. ) 

Best love, 

Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Dampfer "Bremen" 

Dearest M--: 

We are almost in, which means that if this old 
slowpoke keeps up her normal pace we may 
be in London to-morrow, for London is de- 
cided on now. The trip has been of the usual 
sort, one day running into another with little 
change, so now I have no idea what the 
day or date is. Once we met whales, as usual, 
but we hit one in a most unusual manner. I 
was below, of course, but a small boy told me 
the water was "all red with blood/' The peo- 
ple are Jews, but nice; very German, except 
for an English professor, a man named B — , 
and two females. We sit with B — at a small 
table, his mother and sister do not come to 
meals, and at the next table are the two Ama- 
zons, who glare at us. The food and every- 
thing is right. B — is an architect ( friend of 
A — \s) and very nice. The Englishman, C — ,is 
also nice, awfully learned and rather serious. 
C 38 3 



LETTERS 

After him comes a German, Professor A., 
who is very nice indeed. These three we play 
with most; only for exercise we have a sort of 
hockey, played with the shuffle-board things, 
when we take in a young German-American 
(his father is consul at Hannover) and two 
Jews. The Jews, that is, played once, after 
which they stopped, thinking it was too rough 
a game. I am so prudent that I only keep goal 
which is very good for my appendix, but my 
shins are one mass of bruises. 

Sunday night we had a Kneipe, or rather the 
Germans had, in honour of the Unification. 
Professor A. was President, and Straight and 
I sat at either hand. It was rather nice, but 
disappointing because the singing was bad, so 
they devoted most of their time to speeches in 
German. At twelve we broke up and solemnly 
said good-night. Professor A. is apparently the 
greatest authority on the heart, and has been 
over here lecturing. The Englishman is a bi- 
ologist, and the coming man on cancer ; works 
at Buffalo. T — , the consul, is a very decent man 
from Chicago, but rather put out at Straight's 
youth. There was some question of prece- 
dence, they wanted Straight at the Captain's 
table above T — , but Straight cut that knot by 
sitting with us. All of them talk of his youth, 
and roll round their eyes in astonishment while 
he studies Chinese, and walks round the deck 
C 39 D 



LETTERS 

at an enormous rate of speed. I lie and bask 
with either B — , C — , or Professor A. The li- 
brary is ridiculous ; thirty or forty Tauchnitz 
in German and English, so that we just talk, 
doze, yawn and talk again. 

We have a wireless telegraph here which 
never works, so that we have had no news. 
It is different from most and we cannot talk 
to the other liners, nor the stations. The op- 
erator sits up there all day hoping some other 
boat of this line may get in touch, but the 
passengers have long ago lost interest, and as 
the trip has been smooth, they all lie in rows 
on the deck, looking bored to death. 

Love to all: I shall write you from London. 

Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Morley's Hotel, Trafalgar Square 

London, W. C, Thursday, Sept. 6 

Dearest M--: 

At last I havegotten this far, where we breathe 
for a day or two while Straight hobnobs with 
his Mr. M. We got into Plymouth latish last 
night, that is, about 7, so we dined (there 
were only six from the steamer going to Lon- 
don, so there was no special train) and went 
to the theatre, where we saw the Little Mi- 
chau that B — likes so much, and came up by 
[ 40 ] 



LETTERS 

the midnight. Mr. C, the Englishman, was 
with us. Never was there anything so casual 
as our arrival; we walked up the Hoe to an 
hotel, and just dined as if we belonged there, 
the other three passengers going somewhere 
else. The dinner was typical — it's the first 
time Straight has been in England — and the 
play excellent.Thanks to Mr. C. we had very 
little trouble about tips, so everything was 
splendid. Now we are spread out, Straight in 
Cheyne Walk with an old war correspondent 
and Mr. C. at home, and I here at 8.30 writ- 
ing and waiting for Straight who is going to 
the Embassy with me first and then to the 
Russian Embassy. We dine with Mr. M., and 
I suppose that until then we run like mad, see- 
ing things and doing odds and ends. 

There was a letter from V — waiting for me, 
with two pictures of Reine. She is getting on 
— it won't be such a long wait after all — and 
perhaps, with her father's love of out-of-the- 
way places, she won't mind China! G — I 
have n't heard from at all, but may, I suppose, 
so perhaps next time I write, you can tell S — 
that he is balder and stouter than ever! 

This is a bully place, my room is below the 
street, so that as I dress the populace watch 
and admire. So far, no one has even thought 
of getting up, so that it is more like a private 
house than anything. It's awfully hard to find 

[41 3 



LETTERS 

out anything about the Trans-Siberian Ex- 
presses, but there is a daily Express to Mos- 
cow from here, so we shall leave here at 9 
on Sunday morning, and trust to luck. That 
just gives us time to see the race — in faft, 
nothing could be better. I forgot to say that 
V — wrote that J. M. left last week, to go to 
Harvard. Poor chap, I fancy he will be pretty 
blue at first, so G — must look him up. Do tell 
J — sometime, that though I met Miss K. V. V. 
di W. B., I never learned any more than that 
her first name was Katherine. 

When we left the steamer all the Germans 
waved and cheered; they seemed to agree 

with about our courage. Of course they all 

exchanged cards with us, so that I almost have 
a full deck of long German names. All of them 
wanted stamps, but I fancy only a few will 
get them. Miss Aus Der Ohe was on board, 
as you saw, but owing to her sister's death I 
only had a few minutes' talk with her. She 
looks awfully. 

Now good-bye, and lots of love. I must try 
to get around to writing the "other things" 
soon, but at present give them my love. 
Great love, 

Neil 



C 4* H 



LETTERS 



[ TO HIS MOTHER ] 



Grand Hotel d'Europe, St. Petersbourg . 

Sept. II 

Dearest M--: 

At last I am here after a trip which nearly 
wore us out. Since the first day in London, I 
haven't had one minute to write in, so here 
begins the history. Thursday we spent at the 
Embassy, that is, the morning, and later went 
to a scratch polo game in which Gaspar B. 
played, and where I missed Miss P. by leav- 
ing early for a dinner with Mr. M. ( Straight's 
old chief) . He did n't dine with us, but Straight 
and I dined at the same place, Mr. M. having 
a dinner with Mr. S., and joined us later at the 
Empire, whence to bed. Next day we again 
went to the Embassy, where we got passports, 
and afterwards to the Russian Embassy. There 
we met an old friend of Straight's, who much 
to my surprise talked about the revolution 
quite freely. That we were glad to hear, but 
when he asked our opinion of the war, we were 
rather embarrassed. Then to lunch with our 
third Secretary, and afterwards to the practice 
of the crew. Here we saw everyone I have ever 
known in Cambridge, and still more. From 
that we dined with an Associated Press man 
who knew Straight in Japan. It was very amus- 
ing, for they had quite a number of Irish au- 
t 43 ] 



LETTERS 

thors, of more or less repute ( chiefly the lat- 
ter ) , who kept things going. I left early, being 
very tired, and Straightwas staying there ; and 
went home. The E — s ( that was their name ) 
live in Whistler's old house in Cheyne Walk, 
and a very pleasant house it is. When I got 
home I found a wire from G — saying he would 
call next morning, and asking me to lunch, 
which cheered me very much. As I had to meet 
Straight and get tickets, etc., next morning, I 
missed Geoffrey H. when he first came, but we 
met later,and all lunched. Then came the race, 
of which I can say very little except that the 
English papers were rotten, and that we rowed 
a very good race, but were beaten by a better 
crew ; at the time everyone said it was an ex- 
cellent race — however — . Then back to town, 
where I dined at Prince's, where the Cam- 
bridge-Harvard Rowing dinner was, of about 
200 people. There I sat between Geoffrey H. 
andMattB. ! ! The dinner was long and tedious, 
with the ordinary mutual admiration speeches. 
Nevertheless, owing to my companions, I had 
a very nice time. After dinner we went to the 
Alhambra for about ten minutes, and then on 
to supper at the Savoy, where G — and a fellow 
named W — gave a supper of about 20 to me 
and whomever of the Americans I asked. I was 
circumspect , and had chiefly crew men : Bob B . , 
F — , N — , Peter H. and Ned K. Supper made 
C 44 ] 



LETTERS 

up for everything else, and when I left, at 
about two, it was still going. I left because our 
train left at 9 next morning and I had to pack. 
As you may imagine there was little sleep, but 
finally I finished and made my train. From 
London to Berlin all went well, but once in the 
Fatherland our troubles began, and if we had 
not met with a very friendly French-speaking 
Russian we might have been there still. 

(At this spot I fell asleep till next day, it 
being Petersburg at 1.30 a.m.) 

Sept. 12 

Our Russian friend translated our woes to the 
German guard, and we came safely through to 
Wirballen, reading and sleeping. In Berlin we 
missed our train by a fruitless visit to Cook's 
to find times of arriving, but the delay gave 
us time to wire Bob B. when we should arrive. 
At Wirballen we had absolutely no trouble 
with customs on account of passports marked 
Consul, etc., and at the restaurant from which 
I sent off the post-cards, we picked up another 
man ( whom we took to be a Swede, but who 
spoke English ) while ourfirst friend was look- 
ing after his luggage. Russian No. 1 left us at 
Wilna, so we said good-bye as soon as we got 
on the train and got some very much needed 
sleep. We did n't get up till about 9 next day, 
and then breakfasted — a mixture of Eng- 
C 45 ] 



LETTERS 

lish, German and French got it for us — when 
whom should we meet but our Swede. Both 
these men talked quite freely about Russian 
affairs. The Swede turned out to be Von E — , 
who commanded the Sewastopol in the war 
( she was apparently the only ship that fought 
decently), a very nice man and awfully kind, 
doing everything for us. Russia at once shows 
a change, being much wilder and poorer. The 
peasants are all barelegged, genial, vain but 
stupid-looking people, all trying to get in the 
pictures we took (I bought Jimmy H/s cam- 
era in London ) . As for the landscape, it is just 
like New England, except that the houses 
are rather foreign-looking, unpainted wooden 
things, with thatched roofs. The engines burn 
wood, so that everywhere great piles of fuel 
line the track. Birch and fir trees come right 
up to the track almost the entire way, only 
occasionally there were long flat stretches, 
where one could see for miles of rocky pas- 
tures, hay and cultivated land. Everything 
shows great poverty, nowhere was an estate 
in sight. At every station crowds of loafers 
stared at us in a bovine manner, while a few 
children tried to sell us apples. These were 
full of fun, but so scared of the police that they 
used to run under the train to escape him every 
time he appeared. The towns are off back of 
the stations, so that until we reached Gatschina 
C46 •} 



LETTERS 

we had no idea what they looked like; great 
rowsof brick houses painted yellow. The streets 
are awful, either mud or cobble, and put even 
New York to shame for condition. We arrived 
at Petersburg at 7 p.m., when a guide sent by 
Bob B. met us and took us here. At once I tele- 
phoned B — and we dined with him at the ho- 
tel and then went to his room, where we sat 
up till 1 p.m., after which I tried to write, but 
as my note shows, fell asleep. This morning 
we had just had breakfast when in walked 
Kirk B. anda man named McC — , whohave just 
been to and through Central Asia. They are 
leaving to-night, and as it was a holiday here 
with no chance for sight-seeing ( outside of a 
very shabby procession of some religious sort ) 
we sat and talked over their trip till about 
1 .30, when we drove to SpencerE/s house and 
made a call. Just back to finish this, and dress 
for dinner with B — , then to the first night of 
the Russian Opera, where they give a very fa- 
mous Russian play, named the "Tsar/T think. 
St. Petersburg is a fine-looking town, and 
nowhere is there a sign of the terrible revo- 
lution which our papers talk so much about — 
nor did B — and McC — see any anywhere, 
except in the Caucasus, where there were some 
little local riots. The streets are enormous, but 
illy paved, and the houses imposing for the 
most part but a monotonous yellow colour, 

C47 3 



LETTERS 

and a trifle ornate. The " droschky " is every- 
where, and perfectly ridiculous-looking with 
its little drivers padded so that they look like 
Mr. . . . , and wearing little hats like the ones 
in the old Harrison cartoons, only black. They 
drive well, and are very cheap, so that looks 
don't count. E — lives way out on the islands, 
a very nice drive overwhatare thebest streets, 
but which look like the outskirts of some of 
our parks. Everything is wild-looking, I mean 
the trees, etc., but oh, so nice and familiar. 
Whether or not I shall be able to see more 
than St. Isaacs, Kazan and the Hermitage I 
don't know; but as we have to spend most of 
to-morrow at the various Embassies and of- 
fices, I rather doubt it. Our trip to E — 's was 
not a waste of time, as we all had to leave 
cards, B — and McC — for what the Embassy 
had done for them, and we because they have 
been getting letters, etc., and while Mr. Meyer 
is away, E — is Charge. 

It is awful, going so fast, because our im- 
pressions are so slight, and there is so much 
to say, that one becomes a sort of time-table 
trying to cover it. However, when I next write 
it will be more detailed description, and I hope, 
better reading. However, you know what it 
is, so do forgive this, and I'll try not only 
to do better, but write plainer next time. It's 
great, travelling, but you cannot guess how 

c 48 : 



LETTERS 

homesick I am already ! Best of love to every- 
one. I can't write to them now, but will try 
to get to it soon. 

Greatest love, 

Neil 



[ TO HIS MOTHER ] 

Grand Hotel d'Europe, St. Petersbourg 

Sept. 13 

Dearest M--: 

When I left off yesterday I was off to the 
Opera, which was one of the finest things I 
have ever seen. The name was " A Life for the 
Tsar/' but the plot is still unknown, for there 
were peasant scenes, court scenes, jousts and 
finally a very detached city scene. The time 
was last century, and the costumes simply 
magnificent — even more so than our old friend 
OrlenefPs. In the court scene a troupe of about 
20 of the regular corps de ballet did some of 
their national dances which it is impossible to 
describe; I never saw such perfectly trained 
people in my life — and such rhythm, they 
moved like one person, all graceful as some of 
the famous dancers we have seen at home. The 
music was very nice, and the voices, especially 
the tenor, were very good. On the whole it 
was the most brilliant as well as interesting 
thing I have ever seen ; but things come so fast 
C 49 ] 



LETTERS 

that I am in a sort of daze all the time. Between 
the a6ts everyone goes to a room about as 
large as Sherry's ball-room and walks round 
in a circle, just like a Grand March. The en- 
trance to the Royal Box is through this room, 
and two soldiers with drawn swords guard it 
all the time. There were more uniforms than 
anything else, though no important people 
were there. After the curtain went down on the 
last a6l they played the National Air, and all 
the company came to the foot-lights and sang 
it in unison (the curtain was up). This hap- 
pened three times, the house as wild as the 
old Music Hall in Boston used to be during 
the Spanish War. B — said he had never seen 
it done before, and I may add it was the great- 
est thing you can think of. Imagine over 1 50 
voices with a full orchestra ! Then we went to 
supper, where we were to meet some one whose 
name Bob forgot. It turned out to be Mr, C. of 
Chicago, whose son we met last year through 
the LaF — 's ! Don't tell me that no one ever 
goes to St. Petersburg ! We sat with him till 
after 2 p. m. (we never sleep), during which 
time he talked of Russian affairs. He thinks the 
condition serious, but says that the revolution 
has been going on over forty years, and will 
go on for as long again ; this being nothing 
but a little more of a ruffle at the surface. The 
Jews are responsible, being the financial back- 

i 50 3 



LETTERS 

ers of the thing, and they also have provinces 
under their control by usury. They own most 
of the bar-rooms, etc., and make the peasants 
drunk, after which they incite them to the 
plundering of country places. The Jews here 
are much like the Armenians in Turkey, not 
like ours at all. We supped at a place where, 
on New Year's night last year, when every- 
one was there, there was a fight between two 
officers, in which one was killed right in the 
middle of the room ! After supper we walked 
home, the night perfectly clear and the moon 
and all the stars out. The temperature is about 
like Newport in late September, clear and 
brisk. Of course the whole city has canals go- 
ing through, which swarm with barges, chiefly 
of wood, for the fires. I was wrong when I 
said the houses were of brick, as they are 
stucco, I find. When we finally got to bed, 
there was a note from Claude R., asking us to 
lunch with him to-day. That made four people 
in one day whom we had not expefted to 
meet! As soon as we were up this morning 
(8.30-9) we breakfasted, and called on Mr. 
C, who showed us a lot of stuff, of which 
later. Then to St. Isaacs/which is a most mag- 
nificent place like a Greek cross, and huge, 
with its gold dome 300 feet high. Inside, it is 
covered with mosaic pictures, a great deal of 
gold in them, jewelled icons with diamonds as 

c 51 3 



LETTERS 

large as pigeon's eggs set all round. The col- 
umns on the screen are monoliths of malachite 
about forty feet high, and with two lapis-lazuli 
ones in the centre, also monoliths, only about 
twenty feet. The inside doors are of bronze 
gold, with very deep reliefs on them, while 
the outer sides are bronze, equally carved. It 
is most impressive and barbaric. Then to the 
Embassy, to get papers and see the military 
attache. After that, to lunch with R — , and then 
shopping; getting films, paper, maps, etc. As 
everything closes at 3 (the sights, I mean), 
and as the people never go to bed, and we have 
to see the Japanese Minister to-morrow morn- 
ing, the Lord only knows how much more we 
can see. The Hermitage is closed. 

Everyone tells us how much the Russians 
drink, but we have only seen them take tea, 
except light wine at meals. The water is so 
bad that it is n't even used to brush one's teeth 
in, and from appearances the Russians don't 
use it ever. Only once did we try the hors 
d'oeuvres and vodka; the raw fish is delicious, 
but the ceremony takes too long for our short 
time. We walked everywhere this afternoon, 
asking our way in the shops in French. We 
kept seeing arrests made, or rather, a few sol- 
diers marching off the prisoners ; but as no one 
looks at it, we did n't know what it was until 
we were told. That is the only sign of unrest 
[52 ] 



LETTERS 

we have seen so far. Officers and soldiers are 
everywhere. The people (the upper classes, 
that is ) are smart and good-looking, the men 
very large, and the women, one and all, with 
wonderful hair. Droschkies are thick as flies ; 
we don't use them, as one has to bargain with 
them, except when we have to find the hotel. 
One bargains, shakes one's head and walks 
on; then they all shout, four or five at once, 
and follow. Finally you grab one for about 
30 kopeks per course, which is more than the 
Russians pay at that. 

To-night we are off to a small native theatre, 
where they dance nothing but native things, 
with Mr. C. and a Russian girl who lived with 
them in America for a year. When we get to 
bed is a question, for to-morrow is our last day 
here, and there are only two days in Moscow. 
We are to have a letter from the Russian 
Minister of Ways and Communications, and 
one from the Japanese Minister as well. That 
ought to make everything easy for us. 

I write so little of what I want that I am 
ashamed, but each new experience drives out 
the last, and it is only by keeping headings 
that I can remember anything. When I am 
once in Mukden things will be better, and I 
shall have some piftures to send back. 
Love to all, 

Neil 

L 53 ] 



LETTERS 

[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Moscow, Sept. 14 

Dearest M-—. 

Yesterday we did the Hermitage, and got 
perfectly dizzy seeing all the most famous 
pictures in the world. The place was closed, 
but half a rouble gave us an entrance in great 
shape. As we only had an hour, we merely 
rushed through, stopping chiefly at the Van- 
dykes and Rembrandts and Velasquez. Then 
to lunch with the Associated Press man, get- 
ting news, and afterward to the Japanese Le- 
gation for a vise, and to Peter and Paul. That 
is really the most impressive church in St. 
Petersburg, crowded with flags, and all the 
Romanoff tombs with their little lights in sil- 
ver crowns, and covered with gold and silver 
wreaths. Then dinner and the train. 

We got here at about 11 a.m., and after the 
hotel went to the consul, a nice man of about 
45, who was very kind, offering to do every- 
thing for us; but as Straight has a cold we 
merely had lunch and he lay down, while I 
got hold of the A. P. man, a Bulgarian named 
S — who was in Cambridge, 1904. He and I 
walked through the Kremlin, which is a for- 
tress in another walled city ( called the Chi- 
nese city). I can't describe it, except by say- 
ing that it reminds me of Constantinople and 
C 54 ] 



LETTERS 

Straight of China. Everything is bright-col- 
oured, but so dirty ! There are some five or 
six hundred churches here, whose spires show 
everywhere. Usually the dome is gold, though 
in many cases green, or blue, or both. Around 
the main court in the Kremlin there are about 
750 cannon which Napoleon left in his hurry. 
The town is much busier than St. Petersburg, 
and as everywhere the streets are cobbled is 
as noisy as the d — 1. It is not etiquette to take 
pictures, so I don't know how my small ones 
will come out — but I hope they will. All the 
policemen are armed here with rifles and bay- 
onets, but everything is very quiet in appear- 
ance. From the Japs yesterday we learned that 
they expecSt that the R.R.is connefted through 
by now, which will save us about fifty miles 
by cart. 

S — is very nice, and crazy to talk about Har- 
vard, though he was in America last year. He 
has only been here about a month, but in St. 
Petersburg they told us that he was the com- 
ing man in the Associated Press. All the time 
while we were walking about, he pointed out 
the various quarters where the different per- 
sons live. I only hope we can get hold of him 
to-morrow. Our plan is to go to the Ouspen- 
sky church in the morning and hear the choir. 
It is supposed to be the best in Russia. After 
that we can "do" the Kremlin, and whatever 

c 55 n 



LETTERS 

we have time for, till the ballet in the even- 
ing and the train at 11 p.m. Then for four- 
teen days we steam, with no chance of a bath 
under two roubles ; but we have towels and a 
rubber tub, so I fancy we shall be less unplea- 
sant than most Russians, at any rate. 

I have forgotten whether I wrote about the 
dancing at the little Russia theatre. It was per- 
fectly bully; all in native dress, and with their 
own songs and music. The dancing chiefly 
consists of leaps and twirls and a thing like 
the " tailor's dance/' with incessant shouts. 
After that we went to the '■ Summer Garden," 
which is a sort of Coney Island, on a very 
small, poor scale, only they have an indoor 
opera, where we heard an aft of an opera by 
Tschaikovsky ( I don't know how to spell him, 
or which it was ) . In these places I discovered 
that Russian sounds just like Italian. 

I have just dined alone with S — (Straight 
is in bed, but much better), during which he 
gave a most interesting talk on Bulgaria. Also 
he said, casually, that when Austria breaks up 
"of course the Slavs will rule it." He is com- 
ing round to-morrow to take us about, after 
which I shall try to write some more. 
Love, M- -, 

Neil 



C56] 



LETTERS 

[ TO HIS MOTHER ] 

Sept. 15 

Dearest M — : 

To-day we went, at about 9.30, to hear the 
choir in the Ouspensky church, and it was sim- 
ply wonderful. In the first place, the churches 
here are frescoed all over with pictures of 
Heaven, the Lord, the Virgin, Christ, and all 
the saints of that church, and others. The in- 
side was one mass of gold, brass, gilt and 
paint, everywhere, — walls, columns, screen 
and ceiling. The place was jammed, everyone 
standing, and from the continual bowing and 
crossing it looked like a great sea, beyond 
which the priests in gorgeous yellow vest- 
ments rose up. The choir was superb. The 
members join it at the age of five, and as their 
best men train it, you can understand why it 
is so good. After that we went into two more 
churches, just to see them, and while they 
were n't so fine, they were pretty wonderful. 
Then we went to the palace, and after some 
dickering and the production of our Russian 
letter, we were admitted, though it was closed. 
It is where Sergius was living before his death. 
It is almost entirely Oriental in style, with a 
wealth of coloured decoration. There we saw 
Napoleon's rooms and the bed he used. There 
are three thrones and throne-rooms, each 

c 573 



LETTERS 

wonderful and different. One they use for the 
Coronation reception, and it is entirely cov- 
ered with decorations made by peasants, which 
are really extraordinary. The next is entered 
through four great rooms, each consisting of 
the rooms of the great orders: St. George, 
Vladimir, St. Andrew, and one other I forget. 
I wish I could describe any of it to you — all 
I can say is that the first room is old Russian 
and the rest Italian. Then we climbed Ivan's 
Tower for the view, then to lunch at a very 
Russian place; S — and Straight both there; 
Straight's cold is better. After lunch we went 
to a Russian gallery, the Kretyakopsky, where 
there are none but Russian pi&ures . There 
were, of course, hundreds of Vereschagin, but 
we were fairly tired, and they were hung too 
close, so we really got no impression, except 
one perfectly horrible and haunting one of the 
murder of Ivan the Terrible's son by Ivan 
himself, which is far the most horrible thing 
that I have ever seen — and awfully well done. 
That finished us ; and here we are, resting be- 
fore our start. One thing in the gallery that 
was fine was the crowd, who were real Mus- 
covites, poor and rich alike. The men of the 
upper class are fine-looking, but the women 
very much made up and badly drest ( notice 
the new spelling!). The lower class is very 
stupid-looking, and so dirty that one hates to 
158 3 



LETTERS 

be touched by them. This city, far more than 
Constantinople, shows the juncture ofthe East 
and West. What we should have done with- 
out S — I don't know. He is very nice, very 
bright and interesting, and a good talker. To- 
night we dine with him before starting. He 
told me that Trepoff was poisoned — this city 
is very liberal in its views — and some other 
things which I will write later. 
Now I must pack ; good-bye. 

Love to all, 

Neil 



[ TO HIS BROTHER ] 

Sept. i j (?) en route 

Dear B— : 

I am ashamed not to have written you, but I 
literally have n't had a minute till we got on 
this train, and have n't written to anyone ex- 
cept M — . I have an awful lot to thank you 
for ; for I stopped at Harman's and got quite 
a number of shirts, and at Hatchard's a few 
books beside Brinkley, such as Russian and 
Chinese Manuals, a map, the Republic of Plato 
and Marcus Aurelius. This, with a few books 
Straight got, furnish us with our reading mat- 
ter, but as a matter of fa<5t, we don't read very 
much, as there is an old Russian General who 
is going out also, and who speaks French and 
159 3 



LETTERS 

a little English ; so we chat a good deal. Every- 
one says that we cannot find out anything 
about trains in Russia, and it's very true, as 
we were told that this one had a wagon-lit, 
but when we got on we found it only first- 
class carriages, and were crammed into one 
compartment. However, by showing more 
money and getting the Associated Press man 
at Moscow ( he saw us oft) to tell the conduc- 
tor that we were very great officials, we have 
managed to get two places now, and though 
they are at opposite ends of the car they are 
much more comfortable, as our nine pieces of 
luggage took up all the room. (The train is 
going at about 1 2 miles an hour, and very 
jerky.) Thank Heaven you have seen St. 
Petersburg and Moscow, because I cannot 
describe them at all, and yet, when I wrote 
M-- I felt as if I must try. The country is 
much what you must have seen coming up 
from the south, great rolling plains, very rich 
but only partially cultivated, with little clus- 
ters of houses here and there, which look like 
haystacks, being heavily thatched, with wat- 
tled ends. The towns we stop at are all some 
distance from the stations, so we scarcely see 
more than the station itself with its crowds of 
apple and melon sellers in rags and tatters. I 
have taken some piftures which I hope will 
turn out well ; my first camera I dropped from 

ceo 3 



LETTERS 

a cab in Berlin and it got cracked, so I had 
to buy another in St. Petersburg. 

The train is crowded, partly with officers, 
partly women-folk, and a civilian or two and 
a Chinaman. So far as we know the General 
is the only one who speaks French or English, 
but the train hands understand our signs very 
well. Our condu6tor is named Simeon, a very 
friendly chap, who talks to us every time he 
gets a chance. One of the funniest things im- 
aginable is to see Straight talking to him — 
they each gesticulate and say "da, da," to 
each other, which means "yes." We won his 
heart when he gave us the new room, by a 
rouble, so now he comes on the run to open 
windows and the like. The food is excellent 
and very cheap, served in a very nice car with 
a piano in one end, and a bookshelf in the 
other. If you get tired of that you can get out 
at stations (we stop at lots), where we stay 
anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, and where 
the buffet is excellent. On the whole, except 
for the private bathrooms in wagon-lits, we 
are as comfortable as could be. We have n't 
yet reached Siberia, but shall to-morrow, and 
then we shall go through the Urals for a bit. 
It is a 14-day trip to Harbin, and about five 
south to Mukden, where, according to the last 
plan, I stay, while Straight goes on for orders 
to Peking. We are now passing about forty 

c & 1 



LETTERS 

windmills, just like the Newport ones. 

Everyone is as kind as can be, and we have 
(till we struck the train) always had friends 
to play with: Bob B. and E — , Kirk B. and 
McC — , and S — ,aBulgarian and Harvard '04, 
in Moscow. He is the Associated Press man. 
We have a letter from the Minister of Ways 
and Communications which will open every- 
thing to us, but which we have only used as 
yet to get into the Palace at Moscow. When 
you come out to see me, come this way. 

Love to E — . Many thanks. Affly, 

Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Sept. 18 

Dearest M--: 

Here we are, stalled on a siding, waiting for 
the Lord knows what to happen, just about 
half a mile from the monument which marks 
the end of Europe and the beginning of Asia. 
As the train is too joggly to permit writing 
when we go (though I did write to B — ), I 
have to try this minute, though there seems to 
be very little chance of a letter ever getting 
through from here. 

The country continues to be like New Eng- 
land, with birches and firs, and then great 
open, rich-looking plains, with no cultivation 
C62 D 



LETTERS 

to speak of; and though we are in the midst of 
the Urals, it is only about as hilly as Baden- 
Baden; nice rounded hills, covered with dark 
masses of firs, and here and there patches of 
colour from the turning birches. The air is 
wonderfully soft and warm, far warmer than 
at St. Petersburg. The train is not wagon-lit, 
though everyone swore it would be, but we 
are really very comfortable in our first-class 
compartments. We each have one at either 
end of the car, and the buffet could n't be bet- 
ter, though the lack of French or English is 
quite inconvenient. Fortunately there is a very 
dirty old Russian General who speaks French 
well and English in a very queer manner, and 
who has lived for 18 years in the Caucasus. 
He translates our greatest needs for us, in re- 
turn for which we have lent him some books 
on the war and a few cigarettes. He talks well, 
and I am glad he is here, for it makes me 
speak French, more or less. 

The villages are the funniest things you can 
imagine, but oh, so poor. Half the time you 
cannot tell a house from a haystack, and the 
people are in rags. We stop about ten times 
a day, for a few minutes at a time (in which I 
always mean to write, but get out and stretch 
instead ) , and the station is always crowded 
with apple-sellers and loafers. I have taken a 
few pictures which I hope will come out, but 
C 63 ] 



LETTERS 

as most of them are attempts at passing vil- 
lages, I have some doubts. There is also a 
Chinaman on board, whom we use as inter- 
preter when the General is asleep, which is 
most of the time. Straight talks to him in Chi- 
nese, he to the porter in Russian, back into 
Chinese, and then into English for me ! Our 
condu&or is named Simeon, and a greater liar 
never breathed. We tried to move nearer one 
another, but though we each have a spare 
room next us, we could n't, because Simeon 
said they were for ladies, but as far as I can 
make out, they are used by Simeon and his 
fellow conduftors. Outside of the General 
and the Chinamen, there are half a dozen of- 
ficers ( small fry ) with their wives and chil- 
dren, a few civilians, and two or three very 
stout Russian matrons. It is n't like our travel 
at all, for they never really mix, though we 
are allowed to speak or not, as we like, be- 
cause they are sure that we are "mad Eng- 
lish" and our pumps cause great excitement. 
They all look as if they slept in their clothes, 
and the men have taken this opportunity to 
grow beards ; we, on the other hand, scanda- 
lize the inhabitants by taking a sponge bath 
( neither soap nor towels are provided, by the 
way) and shaving. Also, our rubber collars 
give us an almost clean appearance! 
Time is nothing; and no two watches or 
[ 64 ] 



LETTERS 

clocks agree. For instance: when we lunched 
to-day, the station clock said 12.15, my watch 
1.30 (Moscow time, I think), and the buffet 
clock 2.30. However, no one cares, as they 
seem to do nothing but eat and sleep, nor do 
we, for the country has a very dreamy effect 
on one, and all we can do is to read a little 
and look out of the window a great deal. At 
night we have reading-lamps on our tables, 
and can read in bed. 

It seems a year ago that I left Newport, in- 
stead of a little over three weeks, and even 
St. Petersburg seems a month or more back. 
Love to all, 

Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Sept. 22 

Dearest M--: 

The last time I wrote, we were stopping for 
another train, and now we are doing the same, 
only, I hope, not for so long, as at Zlataoust 
we waited seven weary hours, which, how- 
ever, we have made up, all but 30 minutes. 

The days are very monotonous, and for that 
reason pass so quickly that one loses all sense 
of time ; added to that is the curious way in 
which the train goes on St. Petersburg time, 
the time-table bv Moscow time, the dining- 
C 65 ] 



LETTERS 

room clock by local time, and Straight and I 
by a time of our own. As far as we can make 
out, though, we get to Irkoustsk at night, so 
we shan't be able to see Baikal, unfortunately. 
Once there, however, and our journey's back 
is broken, and Mukden within a week or ten 
days, with luck. Straight has found another 
friend, a man (Russian) who used to be in 
Peking when he was there, and as his English 
is much better than our dirty old General's, we 
mean to cling to him ; so most of to-day we 
have been presenting him with cigars and mak- 
ing up in every way. Our cigars, by the way, 
are German, at 30 pfg., and are named " Rara 
Avis," which we hope means they are the last 
of the flock. In return, he has been giving 
us lots of information which we wanted very 
much, but could n't well ask : about railways to 
China, situation and numbers of troops, etc., 
all which he gave us in a most innocent man- 
ner. He is the only person on the train who 
knows what we are, the rest just think we are 
mad English, and wonder at our boots ; the 
General went so far as to price them. Last 
night we had quite a scare when the General 
told us that more people were expefted to get 
on at Taigu, so we had better buy our upper 
berths, in case they should try to get in on 
us ; but as that meant 70 roubles, we merely 
tipped Simeon with two, and locked our doors. 

zee-] 



LETTERS 

If any one did get on, I don't know nor care — 
we were comfortable. (We have just started, 
and the movement is awful, so I may have to 
stop any second. ) 

The landscape is the same sort, only wilder, 
and the houses very bad still, only the towns 
seem larger. In the guide-book when one 
reads of a town of five thousand houses it 
seems quite large and important, till one sees 
that only two are of stone, and the rest (though 
it don't say so ) are unpainted wood. And when 
you get to these large towns you cannot buy 
stamps at the station, so one may have to carry 
a letter a whole day without posting it. 

One of my neighbours has a dulcimer which 
is played all day long, but 5 like mine, you can- 
not hear it, unless you walk into his state- 
room, which ain't polite on this train ! The food 
continues excellent (I weigh ^% puds now 
from it), and last night we ate a sterlet, which 
is quite the most delicious fish I ever dreamed 
of. Its meat is soft as a cream puflf, yet it looks 
like a pike, and has a very hard shell on its 
head. It was just out of the river at Ob. 

To-day is my birthday, which faft was called 
to my notice ( the only calendar I can see is in 
Russian ) by Straight's coming into my room 
with kind remarks, and giving me a present 
from J. C. F. consisting of ten of those small 
volumes of "Shikspur." I was studying Chi- 
C 67 3 



LETTERS 

nese, at the time, and finding that Ssii has seven 
or eight entirely different meanings, so it was 
a very welcome thing ; since when I have de- 
clared a holiday, and to-night mean to have — 
or rather give — a dinner, with caviar and Rus- 
sian white wine, just to show. 

It is very exciting writing with this motion, 
as one never knows where one's pen will 
strike the paper. Also I have no stamps, nor 
could I get any at Bogotol, so when it will be 
posted, or if it ever gets to you, time only can 
tell. There is nothing in it — so it don't matter. 
By the way, this is the land of the Golden 
Horde still, now occupied by Kirgiz, who are 
even dirtier than the true Russ. 

Love, my dearest, 

Neil 



[FROM A LETTER TO H. L.] 

Sept. 23 

Dear H— : 

I am most thoroughly ashamed of myself for 
not having written and thanked you. How- 
ever, better late than never (though it may 
be never as the post here is very strange) 
and please accept my thanks. 

I am so dead sick of describing this old God- 
forsaken Russian landscape that I won't even 
attempt it except to say that the mountains 
C68 ] 



LETTERS 

we should call hills, the rivers trout-brooks 
and the forests shrubbery. And the people ! ! ! 
Why, the way we know when we are passing 
a town ( you can't see it when you get there, 
partly because it ain't, and partly because the 
people live in haystacks ) is by the smell ; not 
cooking or any smell like that, but of unwashed 
human beings. Next you see a blue- white va- 
pour going up like a column, which is solidify- 
ing smell ; after the winter sets in this freezes, 
falls to the ground and is cut up for manure. 
Then you hold your nose and venture out on 
the platform for exercise. Once there you step 
over, around and finally into every sort of 
filth. Occasionally some of the passengers get 
bogged and left. There is lots of water, too, 
only one can't drink it because of germs, so the 
poor untaught Russian lets it be, not know- 
ing what to use it for. All this is outside, but 
we have our petty woes in the train as well. 
We have to pass through the 2nd class to get 
to our meals. We do it on the run, and once in 
the dining-car, find that our appetite is gone, so 
we eat one apple and gulp down some tea, and 
return fainting to our staterooms. Of course 
it is n't very nourishing, but it is cheap! After 
we have gained strength we poke our heads 
out and converse with a very dirty old be- 
whiskered General, whose English is as good 
as a Chinese puzzle. Poor chap ! I am really 

t 693 



LETTERS 

sorry for him — he loves to talk, and yet is so 
lonely. By the way, he did tell me a very 
funny incident of the wars against the Bok- 
hariots in Persia. His troops had just crossed 
a river and no sooner were they on the other 
bank than they lay down and lifted their legs 
up to let the water run out of their boots. The 
Bokhariots saw it and thought it was necro- 
mancy, so they turned and fled. He is a born 
aftor, and told it with more spirit than I can 
or have room for. 

Now we are at another town, where you 
get posted, so goo' bye. 

Neil 

Just wait till you eat Russian caviar in Rus- 
sia!!! 



[FROM A LETTER TO MISS J. M.] 

Somewhere between and 

Sept. 23 

This is the land of the glutton, not the two- 
legged kind one meets at New York dinners, 
but a great furry wild beast who is very hard 
to catch. That I know, because I have tried 
all day, leaning out of my window and mak- 
ing noises like every kind of meat or vege- 
table you can think of, yet he has not shown 

[ 70 3 



LETTERS 

himself at all. I know he is here, because the 
guide tells me so, but what he is I have n't 
the faintest idea. 

I shall have to learn how to write a letter, 
because I never say what I want to; when 
you talk, things don't seem so foolish some- 
how! 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Baikal, Sept. 25 

Dearest M — : 

The train is worse than ever in regard to jer- 
kiness, but about a thousand times better in 
other ways, cleanliness, appointments, etc., for 
we changed at Irkutsk last night at 8. The 
change was a bore at first, we had to wait for 
an hour, I guarding our luggage that we have 
in our cabins, while Straight got the number 
of our berths put on the tickets. Luck is cer- 
tainly with us, for we were next an empty com- 
partment, and by a present of three roubles to 
the guard we got it, so now we have two clean 
rooms with a double door between; in fa6l, 
we are as comfortable as possible, and there 
are three bathrooms, or rather washrooms, 
on our car! The same crowd is with us still, 
augmented by an old Irishman whom I have 
only just spoken to. He is very investigating, 
and has a courier who looks bored to death. 
C 71 1 



LETTERS 

However, as we have till Friday on this train, 
we shall probably get chummy with him, and 
perhaps borrow his courier at Harbin where 
the train stops for two hours. That is, if the 
American consul does n't meet us, but we hope 
he will, as we wired from Irkutsk. We asked 
the Pekinese Russian to dinner with us, for 
he had been invaluable on the platform, and 
dined very well in a much better diner, while 
the train stood still. (One of the brakes was 
out of order, — had been all day, — but no one 
ever thought of fixing it till we were about 
to start. ) The result was that we were two 
hours and more late in starting ; all the bet- 
ter, as we were able to see Baikal this morn- 
ing. Straight waked me at 6.30, and we sat 
looking out on a vast sheet of water under a 
leaden sky, with regular mountains on the 
opposite shore. The lower clouds were like 
very white mist, and hung round the tops so 
that they looked like snow ( we saw patches of 
snow yesterday in the fields ) , and on the other 
side were real snow-capped peaks, quite awe- 
inspiring in the early light. Suddenly, in the 
southeast, a very narrow rift in the clouds on 
the horizon of the lake appeared, and there, 
in a minute, the sun shot up, and the moun- 
tains were turned quite a wonderful pink. It 
was just like Homer and his "rosy-fingered 
Dawn." The rift did not grow any larger, so 

[ 72 n 



LETTERS 

that soon there was only a narrow line of 
gold, with the dark sky everywhere. This 
gradually lighted up, and now we have an or- 
dinary sunny day. After a while, about 9, we 
breakfasted, and since then, till I began this, 
we have written and looked at the lake. It 
looks the way Norway must with its fiords, for 
on the opposite shore, three or four miles off, 
there seem to be little inlets in the mountains. 
At times we have had to go very slowly, as the 
track is built right at the edge of the lake, and 
on sand. Also we saw the famous ice-breaker 
crossing the lake, looking like an ocean steam- 
er. At the last stop we left the lake, very sorry 
to part from it. I don't think I shall ever for- 
get that sunrise, — it is classed with my old 
arrival at Constantinople. Now we are going 
through the same old birch trees and firs. The 
people seem much the same, only there are 
more soldiers round, and more of those very 
large furry hats seen at the stations. But the 
air! it is perfectly clear, soft and bracing, 
rather cold ; but at stations when one walks 
furiously for the stop or tries to buy stamps 
(they are very hard to get — I took all there 
were at the last stop, and only got enough 
for three letters and five or six post-cards, 
and then had to divide with Straight, who had 
been wise and written letters while I did post- 
cards ) it only serves to get your blood run- 

c 73 n 



LETTERS 

ning, and you feel splendidly after the exer- 
cise. 

I wish I had more nerve in taking pictures, 
but I cannot go up to a group of beggars and 
snap them. However, I have taken some, and 
only hope they will turn out well. 

Just think, inside of a week we shall be at 
Mukden. To-day is the first of our fifth week 
of travel, and only eight days' stop, all told. 
I may go to Peking after all, but it all depends 
on Arnell, of whom of course we have heard 
nothing, nor shall, till we get to Mukden. 
Best love, 

Neil 



[TO HIS SISTER] 

Somewhere east of Baikal, on your R.R. 

Sept. 25/46 p.m. {Local Time) 

Dearest S — : 

Here I am actually more than halfway across 
Siberia, less than halfway around the world 
by one or two days, and sitting in a very com- 
fortable car ( rather jerky , to be sure ) , writing 
on my own table with my own electric read- 
ing-lamp ! 

The scenery is very monotonous, or rather 
has been until to-day, nothing but vast plains 
with patches of forest, — entirely birch for the 
first part and later more and more firs, till now 

c ?0 



LETTERS 

the birches are scarce, and here and there lit- 
tle places where the peasants have attempted 
in the rudest manner possible to cultivate. The 
villages are very forlorn, sometimes like hay- 
stacks, sometimes dug-outs, and sometimes 
little wooden houses about as big as the shop 
— unpainted and showing every sign of decay. 
When they mend the roof they throw on a 
few loose planks, and then put dirt on top to 
hold them in place. In this, small bushes grow, 
giving the queerest possible appearance. Yet 
for all the monotony I would n't have missed 
it for the world, and when you come out to 
see me do it that way, only take the wagon- 
lit train, which leaves Moscow every Wednes- 
day, as our train as far as Irkutsk was too 
filthy for words. For all that we were very 
comfortable and thought ourselves lucky, un- 
til we struck this train which showed us how 
good it might have been. Here they actually 
brush the floors every day ! 

We are not very sociable with most of the 
passengers — only talk to a German ( he knows 
no English or French, so our conversations 
are not as brilliant or long as might be — and 
consist in pointing to a mountain and saying it 
is one, or a town, yet we are very friendly), 
the Pekinese Russian, a Frenchman ( not very 
intimate here), the Dirty General, and now 
the Irishman, with whom we have exchanged 
C 75 3 



LETTERS 

only a few words as yet. The General was 
our first friend, but is so dirty, and has so many 
fleas, that we try not to talk with him except 
on platforms. The Pekinese on the other hand 
is clean, speaks very good English, and looks 
and laughs like Rigo T. He was in the Russo- 
Chinese bank at Peking, but now is head of 
the Russo-Chinese schools in China — would 
like to join us and go down from Harbin, but 
has n't the necessary permission, so he goes 
by Vladivostok. We gave him a dinner last 
night in payment for his assistance at Irkutsk, 
for without him we should probably still be 
there. 

To-day the landscape has been marvellous — 
first the sunrise at Baikal, which I tried to de- 
scribe in the letter to M- - posted at one of 
the towns — then valleys and mountains with 
nice well-cultivated fields in the foreground. 
The villages too are better, and the roads 
well kept. In fa6l, there seems here to be a re- 
gular organized attempt to settle the country. 
Soldiers everywhere ; all the evacuated troops 
seem to have settled along the line with their 
arms and guns — in fa6l,it does n't look like a 
long peace out here. At the last station, too, 
we saw our first Chinamen, some dozen or so, 
and these with the Buriats give the appearance 
of a very Eastern place. As we were crawl- 
ing along at one place I saw a real troieka ( ? ) , 
C 76 3 



LETTERS 

going much faster than we, with its driver in 
scarlet and a very much overdressed lady sit- 
ting back in it. Somehow I could n't quite re- 
concile her with the log cabins about, but there 
may be some big places farther back. Except 
for the mountains it still looks like New Eng- 
land when you don't see the houses. 

Whether any of my letters get through I 
don't know, but I hope so. It seems rather un- 
safe to post them in the little stations we pass, 
but it 's the only way. Probably my next will 
be from Mukden, where we hope to be on the 
30th. 

Love to all, 

Neil 



[FROM A LETTER TO THE HON BLE G. H.] 

Khitar, Sept. z6th 

Dear G— , M. P. 

I meant to write before to impress on your 
mind how very grateful I was for everything 
you did to make my departure from London 
a most painful one — which indeed it was, and 
not until I met a little vodka in Petersburg did 
I feel my old cheerful self again. However, 
this is so much earlier than my other letters 
to you that I hope it will do, and if they are 
needed, make the apologies I owe. 

1 11 3 



LETTERS 

So far it has been a very varied trip — friends 
everywhere — at St. Petersburg, Moscow, and 
now on the train, where, though we had no 
friends, we now have hundreds, both man and 
beast. In the first place there is a very dirty old 
be-whiskered Russian General, who speaks a 
little English of which he is proud. Of course 
he is awfully kind and all that ( he saved me 
once, of which more later), but during his 18 
years' service in the Caucasus he has managed 
to pick up and train in Military Art a vast 
army of fleas, which, being moulded on Alex- 
ander's pattern, no sooner see a new being 
than they send out not only an attacking party, 
but colonizers as well. After the first few days 
the old Dirty General was rather lonely, poor 
old buck ! However, yesterday when he saved 
me he had another chance — and took it. At 
some small town, with a name consisting en- 
tirely of vowels written backward, I got off 
to post a letter. It was dusk and as I dis- 
mounted I spoke to the General; when I re- 
turned I got aboard without his seeing me. No 
sooner was I seated than the signal to start be- 
gan, and I heard most powerful bello wings of 
"Mak'hast' — Spee-eed!'T vaguely wondered 
what it was till the train hands came in and 
counted me 2 or 3 times. Then I sort of caught 
on and went out to greet the D. G. He at 
once fell on my neck and gave me his largest 

c 78 n 



LETTERS 

and most courageous flea as a mark of his joy 
in seeing me again. Then the train was al- 
lowed to proceed. 

Also we have on board an Irishman of the 
most inquisitive nature. After asking me whe- 
ther or no I was an engineer, a newspaper 
man, an army officer, a merchant, he gave up 
guessing and said: "Well, what are ye then?" 
He is in the charge of the most forlorn-look- 
ing guide, who slouches around and sighs 
in a heart-rending manner every time any 
question is asked. When the Irishman got on 
(at Irkutsk) he came at once into the dining- 
car and made remarks about everyone's ap- 
pearance. We are quite friendly now. It came 
about after I stole all his stamps. The rest of 
the passengers are officers, merchants, wo- 
men, Chinese, French, Germans — in fact, 
quite a cosmopolitan crowd. 

For a revolutionary country give me Rus- 
sia. So far, except for some arrests we saw in 
Petersburg, and the fact that the police are 
armed with rifles and bayonets, there is never 
a sign of trouble. Everyone talks perfectly 
freely, however, and here and there one sees 
revolutionary documents. The work of the 
country seems to go on; building everywhere, 
especially east of Baikal. 

I never saw such a country for shooting as 
there is here. Game of all sorts from shore 

i: 79 n 



LETTERS 

birds to bears and elk, and no one to shoot 
very much. In fa<5t, as far as I can see they 
spend most of their time watching the train 
come in ; a very ragged crew too. 
As ever, 

Nelson Fairchild 



[ to his mother ] 

Manchuria, Sept. 2Jth 

Dearest M--: 

At last we are in Manchuria, but still have 
three or four days before Mukden is reached ; 
at least, we hope that is all, but now comes 
the hard part of travel. Although the Jap Le- 
gation at St. Petersburg told us the R.R. was 
probably finished, it seems that we have some 
thirty miles to do, either in a hand-car or cart, 
before we reach the Jap lines. At first sight 
Manchuria is bleaker than anything you can 
imagine : avast, brown plain with snow-capped 
hills in the distance and the wind howling as 
I have never heard it before. Chinese appear 
at the stations now, not like our Chinamen, 
but big, brown, genial-looking people, wear- 
ing the strangest mixture of silk and rags. 
Their houses are mere dug-outs, which look 
like little mounds except for the chimneys. 
No sign of any extensive settlements, nor of 
cultivation, but here and there in the distance 

C 803 



LETTERS 

there are herds of cattle or horses. Most of the 
stations are fortified with trenches and bar- 
ricades, while a Russian R.R. guard marches 
up and down with a rifle. This is a mere sur- 
vival of the brigandage after the war, and I 
fancy from the desire of the Russians to keep 
troops here. Manchuria Station was the most 
forlorn spot I have ever seen, a mere hand- 
ful of barracks and a church. The platform 
was crowded with officers and their wives, 
who come down three times a week, when the 
trains come in, and talk, and board us to get 
caviar and coffee and vodka. Khitar was the 
same, only more so. Since then, the stops have 
consisted of the station and one or two houses. 
This, in fa£t,is the Manchurian " Bad Lands/' 
and, thank Heaven, we leave them to-morrow 
at Harbin. 

The Irishman, whom I wrote of last time, 
made us quite a call this afternoon. I made an 
enormous hit when he gave me his card ( Gae- 
lic on the reverse ) by drawing on my store of 
Lady Gregory, and " Darby O'GiU" and "A 
Lad of the OTriels," and showing a know- 
ledge of the thing. Then I told him about 
teaching Irish history in the Boston schools. 
Then I stopped, but he was open-eyed, and as 
for Straight, he simply thought he was dream- 
ing. After all, there is nothing like a gimlet at 
times ! He, of course, belonged to the League. 

C 8l ] 



LETTERS 

In appearance he is very funny, being covered 
with strings: one for his hat, another for his 
handkerchief, a third for his pocketbook, and 
so on, through any quantity of eyeglasses, let- 
ter-cases, passports, etc. Outside of the League, 
his only pleasure in life is travelling ( his father 
was a chandler and starch manufacturer), 
and he has been everywhere but to Australia, 
for which he is now headed. Does n't speak a 
word of anything but Gaelic and English — 
and in that order, I fancy. So he tags on to any 
English-speaking person he can find, order- 
ing them about like a guide. The man whom 
I thought his courier turns out to be a lieu- 
tenant in the Russian Navy ! 

The old General is still with us, — almost all 
are, in faft, — but he is very friendly. One 
evening, when he saw me get out to post a 
letter (the one to S — ) he held the train some 
time, as I got on another car, and so he did n't 
see me. When I heard a great deal of yelling, 
which after some time I made out to be Eng- 
lish, I went out to see what it was, and the 
General fell into my arms and explained. 

That is really the only incident worthy of 
the name since Baikal, and the way they have 
shifted the time around has made our days 
very short. For example: we got up (regu- 
larly) at 10 by our watches, which were cor- 
rect last night, and when we got to breakfast 
C82 H 



- 



LETTERS 

we found it was 1.15! By regularly, I mean 
that at Manchuria Station we went out — we 
got there at 5.30 a.m. by some sort of time, 
and then back to bed. Now, when I feel rather 
ready for lunch, I find it is tea-time. 

I wonder whether any of these letters get 
through ! 

Best, best love, 

Neil 



[FROM SOME VERSES CALLED " RAILROAD 
RUSSIANS " WRITTEN TO E. H.] 

Sept. 27 

The merry Kirghiz never begs, 
His only trouble is his legs. 
And very long they have to be 
To climb so many Steppes, you see. 

The Burials with Mongols play 
In a country far away; 
When to their houses once we came, 
We saw the reason for their name. 

And now I think that I have done, 
This lengthy verse at last is spun, 
Be secret, and I '11 tell you why, — 
My think-tank is completely dry I 

Written in great agony on this the twenty- 



LETTERS 

seventh day of September, in return for which 
I hope to get some news in two or three 
months' time. 

N. F. 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Harbin, Sept. 29 

When we arrived here yesterday, and I was 
about to post the other letter, we met a man 
who spoke like an Englishman, but who, we 
now have reason to believe, is in the Russian 
Secret Service, who told me that the letters 
posted here never went. The reason we be- 
lieve he is a Russian is because when I went to 
the General Staff building, they knew where 
we were, and also because no one here knows 
where or who he could have been. He told 
me he was the agent of the "American Flour 
Company/' which does not exist. Then when 
Straight was out ( I was left sitting in a bare 
room with one bed and washstand, guarding 
the three codes we have, because the Russian 
police have a way of going through your lug- 
gage ) he found the American consul had not 
come, and as two of the codes were to be left 
here with him, one for Vladivostok, we de- 
cided to wait over a day, and wired Vladivos- 
tok (I mean, the consul there) that he was 

C 8 * 3 



LETTERS 

to come and get a package. Since then we 
have found that the telegram was not sent, so 
we are off to-night on the sly, having made 
all sorts of engagements for to-morrow with 
Baron Hoven, head of the Secret Service. 

After Straight got back, at about 3 p.m., we 
lunched and I went out, he guarding, to see the 
town and buy food, for, for two or three days 
now, we shall be without dining-cars, etc. The 
Russians are good-natured and bright, so that 
by the aid ofpiftures and pointing, I succeeded 
in getting quite all we need. The shops have 
pi6lures of what they sell, outside, so I drove 
till I saw a grocery and stopped, shopped and 
returned. Baron Hoven came to tea, and we 
talked till dinner-time. Straight knew him in 
Tientsin, and helped him escape the Japs when 
they came in ; so he is very friendly. For din- 
ner we went to a restaurant called the " Ports- 
mouth/' where we carried the troublesome 
codes in Straight's camera case, and went hea- 
vily armed, as the town is rather worse than 
our frontier towns used to be. Then to bed, 
one sheet only, and no blankets, — and com- 
panions of the hungriest sort! To-day we saw 
Baron Hoven, then drove to the Military Town 
and back to lunch. After lunch, Baron Hoven 
took us around, and after he left we did some 
more investigating, and so back to the hotel, 
and here I am. 

C85 J 



LETTERS 

Harbin is practically only four years old, 
the strangest contrast of new brick or stone 
buildings, wooden houses and dug-outs. The 
streets are awful; unpaved and full of holes, 
so that it is a very common thing for the troj- 
kas to break, two broke with us to-day. It is 
divided into the Old Town ( military ) , the Ad- 
ministrative, the Chinese (two of these), the 
Manufacturing, the Hospital, and the New 
Military, all of which we have seen on the 
sly, though our movements were well known, 
as we were followed everywhere. It is in the 
middle of a bare plain, and as nasty a place as 
you can imagine. Our hotel is the most re- 
spectable, a family one, but it is awful. The 
rooms are as I have said, but the dirt and smell 
are quite beyond proper language, yet all the 
officers' wives who have only just come, must 
live here. No one speaks anything but Rus- 
sian, so that when we have to make our wants 
known, Straight talks with the Chinese coolies, 
who in turn translate. Last night at dinner 
( Baron Hoven said it was the best place to go 
to) we were even worse off, and had all the 
waiters, guests and a spy ( he understood Eng- 
lish, because though we changed tables he 
followed and listened, and we saw him after 
us once or twice to-day — but we gave him a 
merry dance!) in a crowd round us, and yet 
we were not able to get one bit to eat. Not 
C 86 ] 



LETTERS 

a Chinaman was in sight, and we were about 
to leave when they dragged up a villainous- 
looking cook who spoke English. Then we 
dined in peace, but at a terrific price, for the 
war prices are n't down yet. Everywhere we 
went we saw the worst type of people; in 
fa<5t, at night one walks in the middle of the 
street with revolver drawn, and the last Ame- 
rican here, a reporter, only 14 days ago, was 
warned to shoot in case of any sign of trouble. 
I saw one fight, but my driver was so scared 
that we turned and fled before I could see 
what happened. I shall be very glad to leave 
to-night. For a few minutes we almost thought 
I should have to go to Vladivostok alone, and 
round that way, but we decided instead to turn 
the codes over to the Minister at Peking. The 
funny thing is that the police want the codes, 
and know ( at least Baron Hoven does ) that 
they, and not the camera, are in the case. In 
fa6l,they have done everything to make us 
leave it behind. I must dine, pack, and run 
now, so good-bye. This will be posted at Muk- 
den. 

Great love, 

Neil 



c 8 7 : 



LETTERS 

[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Mukden, Oft. 3 

Dearest M--: 

Here we are at last, having got in last night 

just five weeks after our start. 

When I left off last, we were trying to fly 
very quietly from Harbin, but no sooner did 
we call for our bill than Baron Hoven came 
and kindly saw us off. Without him we should 
have been lost, as the train was crowded, and 
we found our compartment taken by a China- 
man. With the Baron's help we got another, 
however, and went to bed. I forgot to write 
that before we left the hotel an Englishman 
came up and asked if we were going south, 
and showed us maps with the latest informa- 
tion about the R.R., as he had that day come 
up from Mukden ! Of course we were delight- 
ed to hear, especially as we found there were 
only 30 miles to do by cart. 

When we waked up next morning we found 
ourselves in the last Russian post, where the 
officers took us at once to the commanding of- 
ficer's house. From there we went to the town 
( Chung-chu-sa ) where we found the man- 
ager of the Bank, with whom we lunched af- 
ter having changed our money. It was a very 
long lunch, so we did not get off till about 
five o'clock, when they gave us a cart for our 

C 88 3 



LETTERS 

stuff, horses, a Captain and four cossacks, 
with whom we rode twelve miles to the first 
Jap outpost. Here we said good-bye, and went 
to bed dinnerless, for the reason there was 
nothing to be had. Then was my first night 
in a Jap bed ( or rather, on ) with my rug and 
coat as covering. The room was bare, and 
our breakfast nothing but tea and Albert bis- 
cuit, which we got thanks to the lone Rus- 
sian there, a telegraph man. The Jap captain 
gave us two soldiers, for this is the worst 
place for Hung-Hudsi, who are the Chinese 
brigands. Here started our agony, for to ride 
in a Chinese cart is like being put in a cage 
and shaken hard by a giant. For ten hours we 
were knocked, jolted, beaten about in those 
awful carts (we had three) with no springs, 
and roads like Virginia. I am sore all over still 
from it, every joint. You have to sit on the 
floor, and hold on to the sides, as your head 
goes bang around the top every time the cart 
lurches, which is every second, if you don't. 
We stopped for lunch with some Japanese of- 
ficers, and had a very decent meal of eggs, 
veal and beer, and then on till 8 p.m., when 
we reached Kung-chu-ling, worn out both 
mentally and physically ; but were partially re- 
vived by a very hot bath and dinner, after 
which bed, and never in my life was I so glad 
to get there. Once only did we see the Hung- 
l 89 J 



LETTERS 

Hudsi, but they did nothing, as at that time 
we were escorted by three Japs, and they 
were only six ; but I was so miserable that I 
hoped they would do something. As we were 
late we couldn't get out and walk, and the 
carts were doing about four miles an hour at 
the end. No more of that, for it is a nightmare. 

Next day we got up, very sore, and went 
to the train. After waiting an hour it came and 
we started. Then from 10.30 a.m. till 1 1 p. m. 
we crawled, in a second class, with long stops 
at the stations, and not until we got to Tie- 
ling did we have any excitement. There we 
saw the soldiers searching the coolies for arms, 
as the Hung-Hudsi have attacked trains very 
often. Also a French Father got in there and 
talked to us till we reached Mukden. Our 
meals were of Albert biscuit and sardines, with 
mineral water. The missionary had been here 
eighteen years and was going home. He was 
most interesting, but I was too sore and tired 
to take much in. 

We had telegraphed to Mukden, from 
Kung-chu-ling, to a missionary, but when we 
got there, he had not come, and we were in 
despair, as there were no coolies nor carts, 
and the town two miles off. Just then we 
heard a very good old Yankee twang, and our 
one subject (we didn't know we had any) 
came up to see off a friend. Seldom have I 

C 90 d 



LETTERS 

been as glad to see anyone in my life. He 
had a cart, and we put our stuff in, and walked 
through the most wonderful harvest moon- 
light into Mukden! It is well policed by Chi- 
nese, and so we were challenged every few 
yards. When we came to the gates we had a 
good deal of difficulty in getting in, but man- 
aged it, and then wound our way through 
wide, fairly well-lighted streets, to the Jap 
hotel, where we were soon fast asleep. This 
morning we went to the post office, but found 
no mail, as the only stuff that had come was for 
vStraight, and sent back to Newchwang. We 
are now waiting for orders from Peking, to 
see whether we go there to-day or not, and I 
am guarding our things while Straight is out 
seeing about our house, etc., and calling on 
the missionaries. Of Mukden I can write no- 
thing yet, but the next time I get a chance I 
shall. At present I am listening to Japanese 
music off in the distance, and looking out into 
our little courtyard. 

Do you know, they tell us that, outside the 
Russians, probably not more than twenty- 
five men (or women and men combined, ra- 
ther) have ever made the trip we did! Some 
day, when I get more settled, I will try to 
write more about it. 

Best love to all, 

Neil 



LETTERS 

[ TO HIS MOTHER ] 

Mukden, Oft. 4 

Dearest M--: 

I am now going to try and tell you what sort 
of a place this is, though I have only seen a 
little of it, and the job is quite beyond me. 
However, here goes. 

In the first place it is in the middle of a 
large plain of the most fertile character, — 
in faft, one remembers the " Letters of a Chi- 
nese Official," for everywhere there are neat 
fields filled with their grain or some other 
garden truck. Then there are little clumps of 
trees, where the houses of the farmers are, 
made of sun-burned brick, and either roofed 
with tiles or thatch. The roofs are not peaked 
as the ones we know in our plates, etc. (those 
are southern), but slightly curved, with a chim- 
ney in the centre, or a very gentle angle when 
tiled. Everything is fenced off( houses, I mean ) 
with either a brick wall or a rush fence. Roads 
abound, only they are simply awful, and so 
filled with dust that we wear automobile gog- 
gles always. The town itself is square, with 
walls about a mile long each way, and forty 
or fifty feet high, with battlements. Each gate 
has a pagoda-like top or watch-tower over it, 
and an outer wall in front. Inside the walls the 
streets run every which way, lined on all sides 
C92 D 



LETTERS 

by either houses right on the road, or by walls 
of the various yamens or enclosed houses with 
four or five courtyards, surrounded by little 
three or four room houses more or less like 
this. (I enclose the plan — more or less — of 
our hotel; our rooms are marked x x. It is a 
Chinese place, we moved from the other yes- 
terday. ) 

The houses on the street are shops for the 
most part, with all sorts of gay-coloured things , 
and they have posts, tall red things, with gilt 
dragons, etc., all over them, sticking out over 
the street. Also the doorways and entrances 
are covered with carvings, so that the dull gray 
of the houses is very much relieved and en- 
livened. There are no sidewalks, so everybody 
and thing mixes up in the street; men, carts, 
'rickshaws, horses, etc., all kicking up a cloud 
of very fine gray dust which penetrates every- 
thing. Hawkers run about with their wares 
slung on long poles, either in baskets or just 
tied on, calling out shrill cries. In f aft, you can- 
not imagine a gayer or brighter scene. Above 
it all is the glorious blue sky of Manchuria, like 
our September skies. Once inside the courts, 
and you find a little garden (for the most 
part withered now, for we have ice at night), 
no dust, and quiet, with a few boys wander- 
ing around on their business. That is the sort 
of place we are trying to find; or a temple, 
C 93 J 



LETTERS 

preferably. The Chinese are mostly in blue, 
with sleeveless jackets, but here and there in 
the crowd, either red or green show up. Their 
working dress is cotton, but silk is seen 
everywhere, and the house-boys all have silk 
as well as cotton clothes. The women do not 
bind their feet here, but do paint very much 
and wear their hair in a very curious man- 
ner on the top of their head, more or less like 

t ^ s ^K? or ^«ftiJ? w ^h i m i ta ti° n flowers and 
bright things stuck in them, and no hats. 
Another common sight in the streets is China- 
men on bicycles, which they love. In the city 
the houses are all tiled and have roofs at quite 
an angle with little clay images of dogs along 
the roof-beams to keep away the devils, and 
at the joint at the peak are dragons or sich. 
We also have a trolley line, about the size of a 
blanket-box on wheels, with seats for four in it. 
It runs on little tracks of about two feet gauge, 
and is shoved along by a coolie. It seems very 
popular, and people even stand in it. When 
they come to a down grade the coolie jumps 
up and sits on the roof! Mukden is in the 
throes of repairing the streets, so there is more 
confusion now than usual, but everyone is too 
good-natured to care, and all go along smil- 
ing and singing to themselves. The children 
are bully ; bright round-faced and round-eyed 

C 94 ] 



LETTERS 

little bunches of colour, with about as many 
little pig-tails as our little negroes, only they 
are all very neatly tied up with pink riband. 
Sometime, when I get more used to it, and 
more nervy, I shall be able to send pi6lures 
of both the women's head-dress and the chil- 
dren, and in fa6l of everything there is. 

Outside of the city there is another wall, 
which surrounds the first and encloses a kind 
of suburb made by the overflow. This looks 
much the same as the city proper, but less fine. 
Beyond this wall, and on the road to the sta- 
tion, are the temples and the newer suburbs 
still, which are chiefly Jap shanties, very thinly 
made, so that both Mr. and Mrs. Fulton (the 
Irish missionary ) say they don't see how they 
can stand the cold winter. Out here, in one of 
the temples, is the place where we are trying 
to get our houses and office. The temples are 
surrounded by walls of course, and are much 
like the other yamens, only more decorated, 
and very gay, with the Lamas running around 
in their yellow jackets and shaved heads. Of 
the ones I have seen, except for one or two 
great porcelain dogs on pedestals outside the 
outer gate, there are no images to be seen, 
for they keep them in the attic, and so far as 
I know, only the priests look at them. Mr. 
Fulton and I went this afternoon to look at 
some of the buildings in one, and had tea with 
C 95 J 



LETTERS 

the head Lama, a very jolly old man in great 
horn spe&acles, who told us he would rent 
us some three buildings if we wanted. That 
sounds very large, but as each only has two 
rooms and a hall, and we are three ( Arnell is 
on his way) and need the office as well, it 
is n't much. The idea of living there, cheek by 
jowl with a crowd of Lamas is fine, especially 
as we may get to be such very good friends 
that they will teach us their lore. Also their 
park is quite the finest I have yet seen, and 
even if we cannot have that it will be a plea- 
sure to look at it always. It was rather funny 
to be dickering over prices with the priests. 
We have n't taken it yet, because Straight has 
developed a fever, and his temperature jumps 
to 103 every night, so I have been keeping 
him in bed. The doftor has seen him and says 
it's nothing but his being over-tired. To-mor- 
row he is going, and I hope we shall start 
repairs on the place next day. His fever is ra- 
ther awkward, because it means that I shall 
have to go to Peking alone for stores and 
orders, etc., and no one speaks anything but 
Chinese on the road, except for the first few 
hours, when Japanese is spoken. However, I 
guess I can do it, by aid of the various Ameri- 
cans at Newchwang and Tientsin and the like, 
who would put me on the train at each place. 
We changed hotels for many reasons. . . . 
t96l 



LETTERS 

The character of the first inn was very bad, 
though it is the only Japanese hotel here, and 
by far the best known in Mukden ; all foreign- 
ers stay there. Also now we have two rooms 
and meals for just half what we had to pay be- 
fore, for one room without meals. And again, 
the Chinese servants are much more attentive; 
we have a special boy to look after us, and 
two small things called "learn pidgins" who 
are learning to be house-boys, and who just 
pursue us all the time, to do errands or brush 
clothes or clean up. In fact, it is just as though 
we were staying our last night in an English 
house, and the servants were trying to insure 
a larger tip. Our two rooms are not very large, 
nor what people at home would call furnished, 
being merely fixed with a table each and two 
chairs, but no bed. We sleep on mats on a sort 
of dais at one end, called a" khan," and strange 
to say, are very comfortable, having borrowed 
sheets from the doftor ( a Scotch missionary 
named Christie). To-day, also, they put in a 
stove to keep Straight warm as the change in 
the evenings is very great indeed. By the way, 
in the last letter I spelt the name of the Chi- 
nese bandits in a way entirely of my own, and 
quite fantastic, as usual; they are "Hung-hu- 
tsa." In time I may learn. ... So good-bye. 
Love to all, 

Neil 

C97H 



LETTERS 

[FROM A LETTER TO HIS BROTHER] 

Mukden, Ott. $th 

Dear C— : 

A good many times on my way out I thought 
of you, for with your love for the West I think 
you would be quite crazy about Russia, or ra- 
ther, Siberia. It is the most wonderful grain 
country I have ever seen, — so wonderful that 
with their poor tools and worse methods they 
get more than they can use there. It is a won- 
derful chance for modern farm-machinery 
men, and if any one would put up a grain ele- 
vator they would be bound to make money. 
Around Harbin, where there are quite a num- 
ber of flour mills, grain is so cheap that wheat 
costs, delivered at the mill, 40 kopeks per pud, 
or about 20 cents for more than a bushel! 
They showed us flour at from 1 rouble 80 
kopeks, down to 1 rouble 40, per pud, which 
looked almost as good as our best. Of course 
the Russians put an awful lot of restriftions 
in the way of the foreigner,but even with that, 
the country has got a wonderful future. If any- 
one tells you Russia is going bankrupt, don't 
believe him. The peasants are poor, but they 
have barely scratched the surface of their 
wealth ; what with minerals, coal, forests, graz- 
ing lands and, above all, wheat, they have 
far greater resources than we, for the land is 
C98 J 



LETTERS 

about the same, but the size, tremendous. The 
revolution I don't think means much, and I 
have talked with all sorts, all along the way. 
Of course in our papers it looks pretty bad, 
for they colle6l news from all the different 
provinces, thousands of miles apart, and make 
one column of it. We were in Moscow when 
they hanged two revolutionists, and aside from 
the fa6l that the police are all armed with 
rifles and bayonets, there was absolutely no 
disturbance to be seen, and Moscow is one 
of the hotbeds. The troops are faithful to the 
Government, having only one desire : to re- 
new the war with Japan, which they tell you 
openly, but still, it is better not to talk too 
freely. Manchuria is another wonderfully rich 
country, and here they have developed farm- 
ing much more than in Russia, but hardly 
touched their coal and gold supplies. In both 
places American machinery and canned stuffs, 
camp-beds, oil, filters (the water is all bad), 
fly-paper, cutlery, cotton goods, in faft almost 
everything is in demand, and if the countries 
were properly canvassed, a great deal more 
could be sold. 

The Chinese and Russians both are agri- 
culturalists, and hard-working, very decent 
people, in whom one cannot help believing 
very much. The faft is, the countries are too 
rich to fail, and when they have better methods 
l99l 



LOFC. 



LETTERS 

they will be able to do wonders. China is wak- 
ing up for sure, and you see decent police, 
well-drilled soldiers in modern uniforms, and 
an air of general prosperity everywhere. . . . 
The German consul alone got here before 
us; we made the trip in just five weeks from 
New York, having stopped ten days, all told, 
en route. The train was good to Irkutsk, 
excellent to Harbin (a town like our old 
frontier towns, by the way, very tough and 
disorderly, everyone goes armed ) , but from 
there, we were pretty uncomfortable. Sixteen 
miles by horse, thirty miles by Chinese cart 
(a special sort of Hell) and then 14 hours by 
a rotten little 3 ft. 6 gauge Jap road. Now we 
are stopping at a Chinese inn, till we get a 
chance to get our permanent quarters, which 
seem very hard to find. When I have more 
time, and get some pictures developed and 
printed I am going to send them home, and 
then you can see what Mukden looks like. 
Love to M — , and regards to E. F. C, Mr. 
L., Mr. T. and the L— s. 

As ever, 

Neil 



C 1GO 3 



LETTERS 

[TO HIS FATHER] 

Mukden, Oft. %th 

Dear P— : 

At last we are here in Mukden ; very far from 
settled, but still, not on the jump every day. 
Our quarters are very primitive, but after the 
long time in the train, they seem like luxury. 
Just now we have two rooms, about 8 by 12, 
one table and two chairs. Our beds consist of 
mats on a raised place at one end, with another 
mat for covering. Thanks to one of the mis- 
sionaries we have sheets ( a thing we did n't 
have for a week after we left the train ) , but 
our pillows are the ordinary Chinese ones, and 
very hard. If you don't know what they look 
like, imagine a thing about as big and hard as 
a brick, made out of china. 

Of course there are only very few foreigners 
here, not over a dozen all told, but so far, five 
have passed through, so we expecl; to have 
quite a number during the year. Of course they 
are all people who have been in China always, 
no traveller ever gets here at this season. Of 
the residents I have only met four : Mr. Ful- 
ton, a very nice Irish missionary ; Dr. Christie, 
a Scotch one, also very nice, who took care of 
Straight who was laid up with malaria for a 
few days ; a man named Brown ( you see we 
have even that name here), who represents 

1 101 3 



LETTERS 

some tobacco company; and our one subject, 
named Farnum, who came out as a private 
soldier during the Boxer trouble. They are all 
very busy, so we have n't seen much of them 
except Mr. Fulton, who has been helping us 
look up houses. That is worse than it used to 
be in New York, for the Chinese don't want us 
in the city itself. ... I have found a very fine 
temple for us, and just now we are pulling 

strings to get it Whether or no we succeed 

I cannot say, but I think we may. It is quite 
small, two courtyards only, and three houses 
of 3 and 4 rooms each. You have no idea how 
funny it is to see Lama priests only ten years 
old sitting up and receiving you. I made quite 
good friends with one of them, by patting his 
dog. He disappeared for a minute and then 
reappeared with a puppy in his arms, which he 
wanted to give me, but I explained that though 
he was very kind I had no place to keep 
one now. Then, of course, we drank tea; you 
do that everywhere at any time; in shops, in 
houses, whenever any Oriental comes to call 
you give it them. This morning we started at 
9 o'clock, when we were interviewed by a 
reporter, and have kept it up till now, in the 
evening, and such bad tea! I suppose it's like 
shoes in Lynn, they send the best away. 

Diplomatically, everything is waiting till 
April, when the Japs have to go, but we al- 

C 102 3 



LETTERS 

ready have two consular cases on, with no 
typewriter or paper to report with. Also we 
are very busy with our reports on the trip and 
conditions, which we must hurry in. The day 
passes so quickly we haven't seen the town 
yet, nor have I taken a picture ! We came out 
so fast we have beaten the mail, and so, not 
having got any papers, we haven't got any 
idea what has happened. Regards to all the 

office - Much love, 

Neil 

[to his sister] 

Mukden, Oft. 9 

Dear S — : 

Woe is me, there are no pifture post-cards 
here, so until I get on to Tientsin or Peking 
I cannot get any for Gam, but please tell her 
not to care, as some day I shall find some of 
China. We are still here in our Chinese hotel, 
Straight all right again, searching in vain for 
a house. Those clever little people, the Japs, 
have occupied everything available by the 
simple process of taking it, and as they pay no 
rent it is very hard to get them out. However, 
Straight has seen the Viceroy and told him we 
must have a temple, and we went to see the 
Japanese Consul-General ( an old friend of 
Straight's) and told him the same. The tem- 
[ 1Q 3 3 



LETTERS 

pie is occupied by some tailors now, so we 
have hopes. Also, Arnell has not turned up, 
though we expe6l him daily, but that does n't 
matter so much, and I think we leave to-mor- 
row for supplies, — you can see by this paper 
we need them! — and I shall probably go on 
to Peking alone. I have a "boy" now, aged 
about 40, who is a veritable rascal, but as he 
is the only available one here who speaks 
English, I had to take him for a month. Inci- 
dentally he cuts hair, and mine is over my 
shoulders now. Still, when we get settled, if 
we ever do, I shall probably get another who 
is more to be trusted. Everyone is a robber 
here, and if it were not for Mr. Fulton I think 
we should be overcharged about 100 per cent 
every time. He, thank our stars, has lived here 
over twenty years and knows prices and all 
that, which he tells us before we do anything. 
As yetwe have made no official visits, — they 
begin, I think, to-morrow, — but I have drunk 
more bad ceremonial tea than I have ever had 
before. To-day we were interviewed by a re- 
porter from a Jap paper, in English, so he got 
nothing from us. Of course they all want to 
to know about the Russian troops, but we are 
very blind except in our reports to Washing- 
ton. I am deep in a report on the trip, chiefly 
a sort of guide-book, but at the same time a 
commercial one, which is very hard, as we can 

[ 104 3 



LETTERS 

have no more idea than of the land the R. R. 
passes through. 

No mail from home yet, though a large 
stack of official matter came on Saturday, 
dated from December last ! Some of the re- 
plies will be rather late, I fancy. . . . Then 
again we are handicapped till we get supplies, 
as this paper won't do. 

Mukden, as far as I have seen it, is per- 
fe<5tly bully, though dustier than New York. 
The people are very friendly, and the small 
children and I get on splendidly by smiles, 
We cause a good deal of staring, but none 
of an unpleasant kind. Etiquette is too com- 
plicated for words, it seems to take years to 
learn properly. Now I must copy some letters 
for Straight. x 

Love ' Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Mukden, Oft. n 

Dearest M--: 

To-day and yesterday were both very ac- 
tive ones, as our first official visit to the Vice- 
roy took place at 9, yesterday morning. We 
went in state, each of us dressed in frock coat 
and top hat ( they are the only two in Muk- 
den, by the way), riding in two carts, pre- 
ceded and followed by our boys in official 

[ 105 ] 



LETTERS 

hats, the top part being covered with red tas- 
sels, while the button is black. The Vice- 
roy received us in a large "foreign" room, 
filled with knick-knacks from every place but 
China. We all sat at a round table and talked 
of everything ( an interpreter forme ) for about 
twenty minutes, when a very sweet cham- 
pagne was brought in. After we had swal- 
lowed one glass as best we could, we left. 
This morning he called on us at the same 
hour, and a mighty important thing it was for 
the inn. We borrowed the best room from our 
host, and sat in very uncomfortable state, talk- 
ing, for about three quarters of an hour. Our 
poor host trembled so when he passed tea 
that I was afraid he would spill it, — but just 
fancy entertaining in your own house, for the 
first time, a man who has absolute power of 
life and death over you ! Again bad champagne 
closed the call, and then I fled cityward to 
look for houses, as we have been commanded 
by Mr. Rockhill to get one inside the city, a 
secret as yet. We must have made a hit with 
the Viceroy, because we were asked to dine 
there to-night, which we did. Again we went 
in great state, but no comfort, dressed in our 
best. The hour was six p.m. When we got 
there we found Mr. Oliver as well as the Vice- 
roy, the Tao Tai and the interpreter. After a 
little tea, we sat down to a "European" din- 

C 106 3 



LETTERS 

ner. First came shark\s-fin soup, and very 
good it was, then fish, then pheasant, aspara- 
gus, sausage, pate ( the Lord knows of what ) , 
then bread and butter. All butter is tinned out 
here, so it was more of a luxury than it seems. 
Then liver, roast apples, and finally dessert, 
of pineapples and other fruits. Afterwards 
coffee, then tea and pretty speeches and home. 
To drink, we had first port, then white wine, 
then beer, then champagne, and green minthe 
to finish up with ! It was all very queer, as it 
sounds, but a very pleasant dinner. The Chi- 
nese love flattery, and really I blushed at the 
way we laid it on. Talk of a trowel — why, we 
laid it on with a shovel apiece. 

We have called on Hujiwara, the Japanese 
consul also. . . . Now he is helping us over a 
temple outside the city, while we are working 
like mad, but very secretly, for a place inside. 
To-night we leave at midnight for New- 
chwang. There I leave Straight and fly to Pe- 
king and back, while Straight does some work 
and returns here. Arnell has not turned up 
yet, though he was due two days ago. What 
with him and our letters not coming, we are 
mad as the dickens. Now I suppose my mail 
will come in those ten days when I am away ! 

Straight is calling me, so good-bye. 

Love, 
Neil 
t 1Q 7 H 



LETTERS 

[ TO HIS MOTHER ] 

Shan-Han-Kwan, 051. 13 

Dearest M--: 

I am now just inside the Great Wall which I 
saw first a few minutes ago, with the sun 
sinking behind it. Here I stop for the night, 
for trains don't run at night here, and I find 
myself in a very large comfortable hotel, built 
rather like our summer ones, and run by 
English people. 

When I last wrote, we were just off for 
Newchwang. After a horrible trip we got 
there at about 9 next morning ; or rather we 
got to the station, and then went on one of 
those absurd little so-called "trolleys" to the 
city. It was really nothing but a truck with a 
dos-a-dos bench on it, and run by a coolie 
pushing it. . . . At length we arrived at what 
seemed a very large town, and it actually has 
150 Europeans in it! We went at once to the 
" Manchuria House," and after breakfast sal- 
lied out to see people. The town is nothing 
in itself. Also we got hair-cuts, and new, very 
dressy, felt hats, for respectability . Then we 
met people: the Customs, the British and Ger- 
man Consuls (both of whom come to Muk- 
den in a few days for good ), merchants, mis- 
sionaries, doctors, and above all, wives! We 
lunched with some Americans called R. T. 

C lo8 3 



LETTERS 

( very nice these were ) , then went to our Con- 
sulate to read up the correspondence concern- 
ing the opening of Manchuria, etc. (our con- 
sul is away on leave ) , which took us till 5 p. m. 
Then to tea with the Customs — a Harvard 
man, named Clark — and after that to make 
formal calls until 7, on all the officials. Then 
we went to the Club! and talked a minute or 
two, until we had to dress to dine with the 
R. T/s. Mr. Fulford, the British Consul, is an 
old man, but seems very nice; he came as far 
as the first junftion with me to-day , which was 
nice, as Straight is still in Newchwang — and 
at the station I met his Vice, who is young and 
very pleasant; so we shall have nice compan- 
ions in Mukden ; I met also Mr. Mezger, the 
German Consul, who is young and pleasant 
too. Dinner over, we went to work till 12, 
then I slept, and started this morning at 7. 
The trip was comfortable and interesting. In 
the first place it was my first glimpse of China 
proper. Everywhere it is cultivated, except a 
lot of things I first thought were haystacks 
(very small), but which turned out to be 
graves. At every station were well-drilled sol- 
diers, who stood at attention while the train 
was in. Crowds of hotel runners came to meet 
the train, each with the name of their hotel 
marked in Chinese on a little flag, and as soon 
as the Chinese passengers got off, they set up 
L 1Q 9 ] 



LETTERS 

a shout for all the world like a football field 
when the teams appear. 

The day was soft in colour, and to look over 
the large flat plain to the pale blue hills beyond 
was delightful. The hills were just what they 
ought always to be: a jumble of irregular 
peaks rising sheer out of a perfeftly flat plain. 
Here and there on them were watch-towers 
showing black against the sky. Once in awhile 
we would pass an old walled town, with its pa- 
goda-gates and temples. Everywhere the land 
was teeming with life ; little blue Chinese work- 
ing, children playing, cattle, dogs, pigs and 
so on. Storks also were flying over the towns 
in numbers. Really, I did n't wonder the Chi- 
nese want their country for themselves, and 
hate having foreigners butting in and putting 
up railroads and telegraphs. It is all like the 
"Letters of a Chinese Official/' except that 
Lowes Dickinson omitted the dirt. Why they 
leave it and become Westerners I can't see. 
Mukden is, of course, wilder, but yet I have n't 
seen such a picturesque place. Mr. Fulford 
and I are planning trips as soon as we get set- 
tled — I mean, short ones, exploring the city 
and tombs. As I said, the sun was sinking 
when we reached the Wall, and the great gray 
thing stretched miles in each direction, like a 
sort of rampart, with its little watch-towers 
here and there. It is not in very good condi- 

C no 3 



LETTERS 

tion, I saw, when we got nearer, but it only 
adds to the sight. For a while I wondered how 
we could get through, and imagine my dis- 
may when we suddenly passed through a 
great breach made for the purpose ! It seemed 
like sacrilege, almost, to break a thing as old 
as it is, yet it had to be done I suppose — or I 
never should have been able to get to Peking. 
By the way, the real reason I am ordered 
there is to deliver those two troublesome codes 
which gave us so much difficulty in Harbin. 
Tient-Tsin, where I stop to-morrow, is like 
Shanghai, and only 3 hours from Peking. It 
is full of foreigners, to a lot of whom I have 
letters, so my day will be pleasant as well as 
busy. My "boy" is with me; really, for $7.50 
a month to get an English-speaking boy who 
does everything for one seems very reason- 
able. Where he sleeps or what he eats I don't 
know — I mean, he is within hearing every 
time I want him. 

Now for dinner, then to work at my report 
till bed. 

Love ' Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Peking, China, OB. 14. 

Dearest M--: 

... At last I am here, staying inside the walls, 

c »» 1 



LETTERS 

with Mr. John Coolidge. There is a Japanese 
Prince here, who has taken all the rooms at all 
the hotels, so when I arrived late last evening, 
I had no place to go. At first they thought they 
might be able to put me in the barber shop, but 
found even that full, so I applied to Mr. Rock- 
hill, as Billy P. was away at the moment 
(he got back later). Mr. Rockhill had no- 
thing to suggest ; so I went and dined, having 
burst into an American's room to wash. He 
turned out to be one I had slightly known in 
New York, an old Harvard man of '94. So we 
dined together. In the middle, Mr. Coolidge 
came in, and told me he had a bed for me, so 
now I am ensconced in a little house in his 
compound, living like a prince. This morning 
I called on Mr. Rockhill with despatches, and 
got rid of those bothersome codes, and then 
went for lunch with the P — s. You cannot ima- 
gine how pleasant it was to have three nice 
American girls to talk to — they have a Miss 
H. staying with them. 

As usual I have seen nothing of the city, 
except for a minute's walk on the walls, and 
a 'rickshaw drive to the A. P. man's house — 
a man Straight had known, and as he is go- 
ing home, we want to get some of his stuff. 
That drive brought me near the Forbidden 
City. From the outside, the place looks like 
an enlarged Mukden ( that is, the whole town 



LETTERS 

does), a square, walled town with its many 
gates, only all the colour and decorations are 
more vivid. The Forbidden City is surrounded 
by a red wall and all the roofs are dull bronze- 
gold, very beautiful indeed. To-day is rather 
cloudy, so the country was hidden more or 
less, but with the sun it must be dazzling. It 
cannot be described — we were talking about it 
at lunch,' and I found they were in the same 
dilemma I am, wanting to tell about it, and 
quite unable. Post-cards, which I will send 
Gam, give more or less of an idea. I want to 
get Mr. Coolidge to take me round to-morrow, 
and then I go to Tien-Tsin ( I came straight 
through this time) and back to our Chinese Inn. 

Mr. Rockhill has ordered us to get a place 
inside the city, which is well-nigh impossible, 
so good-bye to our temple ; I suppose we shall 
live in some small dirty compound. . . . Mr. 
Rockhill has been very kind. Really, I wish I 
could be here a week at least, but I simply 
have to get my report off, and help Straight 
at Mukden. 

It is funny how natural it all seems. To 
walk along a Chinese road seems the thing I 
have always done — and so pleasant! I think 
it has been the best thing I have ever done — 
and things look very bright. Now I am going 
to explore. Best love, 

Neil 

C "3 ] 



LETTEJRS 

[FROM A LETTER TO H. N.] 

Peking, China, Oft. 16 

Dear Old H — : 

Mukden is a pretty place. It has four walls, 
eight gates, twelve Europeans, seven million 
two hundred and forty-two thousand Chinese, 
three hundred and ninety-six thousand eight 
hundred and twenty-three and a half Japs. 
Houses there are none; at least, in the ten 
days I was there we could n't find any, and 
lived at a Chinese Inn, where I left Straight 
while I went on to this village to rubber. 

Like burglars we arrived in the dead of 
night, quite dead ourselves, and sneaked into 
the old town upon whose astonished gaze the 
American Consul-General and self burst the 
next day. Great ceremonies, much tea con- 
sumed and such a wealth of compliments were 
exchanged as never yet have been imagined. 
Each morning from 8-9 we are interviewed 
by various newspaper men who learn nothing. 
Then at 9, either we call on His Excellency 
the Viceroy or the Tao Tai, or one of them 
calls on us. Sweet champagne at this time. 
Then home and work till our cook serves us 
his invariable lunch, then more work or calls 
or errands, dinner and bed. It may not sound 
exciting, but it is. 

Of course our hotel is n't a Waldorf, we 

C 114 u 



LETTERS 

have no beds or sheets or any effete luxuries 
like that, but by and by we may have a real 
roof of our own and chairs, etc. . . . 

For all myjeers Mukden is a perfectly bully 
place, for all the world like a pocket-piece 
Peking. Just now the streets are rather torn 
up, as a reform movement is sweeping the 
town and they are repairing, but that only 
adds, and shows the merry little Manchu at 
work. I could have a few shops and not kick, 
as it is absolutely impossible to buy anything 
there. Still, the awful port of Newchwang is 
only nine hours or sixteen dollars (Mex.) 
off, so when we want a smoke or drink we 
can go and get it, or a hair-cut, for though 
my Boy is a barber he only knows the Chi- 
nese style, which don't become us. . . . 
Happy as a lark, 

Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Mukden, OR. 25 

Dearest M--: 

Here I am, back from my wanderings and 
once more in my little Chinese Inn, which 
begins to seem like home. Two letters, one 
10th and one 18th of September, and one full 
of clippings, came this week, together with 
one from S — wishing me a birthday wish, — 
i "5 ] 



LETTERS 

mighty welcome they were too, the first news 
since St. Petersburg. It seems less like writ- 
ing at a stone wall now than it did, not that 
I ever thought you a stone wall, but some- 
how to fling letters off the Siberian express 
and never hear, was rather a bore after the 
first three weeks. I wonder if you ever got 
them. 

Peking, on the whole, disappointed me; it 
is really only an enlarged Mukden, and of 
course most people see it for the first native 
city. I forget whether I wrote from there or 
not. I was rather busy most of the time, so 
did n't see many sights ; in fact, only one Lama 
temple and the famous Temple of Heaven. 
That is certainly one of the wonders of the 
world. The altar where they worship Heaven 
(a wonderful idea) is a round marble plat- 
form with three steps up, and in its extreme 
simplicity is one of the most gorgeous things 
I have ever seen. The view from the walls, 
too, is splendid, — I mean the city walls, you 
look quite into the Forbidden City with its 
gold-bronze roofs; but the Legation quarter 
is so very new and European that it seems 
out of place and spoils the effect. I stayed 
with Mr. Coolidge and played with the P — s 
all the time. 

On my way back I stopped ofFat Tien-tsin, 
did a little shopping, fled to Xewchwang and 
C 116 ] 



LETTERS 

so home. Once here I found Arnell, a plea- 
sant fellow, whom we don't see much ex- 
cept at work, which we are very busy at now. 
My report is done (thank Heaven! ) and will 
be off as soon as our supplies come and I can 
type-write it. Fancy me type-writing! Our 
house seems as far off as before, and as win- 
ter is coming fast, we may have to stay here 
till spring. However, it 's fairly comfortable, 
and this week there have been three Euro- 
peans here. When we are not actually writ- 
ing we are either paying or receiving official 
visits at very odd moments, anywhere from 
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. And on Saturday we dine the 
Viceroy and members of the Foreign Office. 
Then things are nearly over, also our first 
press of work ; so in a week or two I hope to 
be able to see a little of the place. We shall 
have to get ponies first, though, as the roads 
are impassable for 'rickshaws and too dirty to 
walk much. I did walk on the walls yester- 
day, on my way to see Mr. Ross, the oldest 
missionary and extremely famous. It was a 
pleasant walk, and surprising to a degree, for 
I suddenly discovered a small thing which 
looks just like the Forbidden City. It turned 
out to be the Palace. 

You cannot imagine the beauty of this place 
at sunset, when everything fades away into a 
sort of gloom. It makes me wish I could paint. 
C "7] 



LETTERS 

Straight does, and I '11 try to get a pifture 
from him to send you. 

Many thanks for the clippings. Just think 
how sorry Barrie will feel that he fell in love 
so soon, when he sees her! Do send me clip- 
pings of her success. The other things (ex- 
cept about Lawton's valley ) I knew, for the 
papers out here publish the strangest lot of 
miscellaneous stuff; they announced — *$ en- 
gagement, for example. 

Hosie's book on Manchuria is a very good 
one to read, and Colquhoun has written one 
of his readable things, called "Overland to 
China/' an enormous volume, but much what 
we did. One, I forget which, has a good de- 
scription of Mukden. I must go to bed as it's 
late, and the Taotun Tao Chu calls to-morrow 
at 8.30, which means frock coat, cakes, tea, 
cigarettes, and a sip of very bad champagne 
before work ! It's lucky you are not supposed 
to do more than wet your lips. 

Best love, 

Neil 



[FROM A LETTER TO HIS FATHER] 

Mukden, Oft. 26, 1906 

Dear P— : 

Except for the fa6l that we are still in the 

Chinese hotel with no immediate prospeft of 

C "8 3 



LETTERS 

a house things are going on in a very pleasant 
way. We have two small rooms for office and 
a couple of bedrooms as well, only it is an 
awful bore to live in a trunk and sleep on a 
mat! However, we are pioneers and cannot 
expe6l much luxury. 

My Peking trip was fine, not only in see- 
ing the place, but it let me get more in touch 
with what is going on out here — and besides 
I saw a number of people whom I was very 
glad to. I am awfully sorry not to have seen 
Sir Robert Hart. The city itself is most inter- 
esting, only Mukden in many ways is much 
finer, so I was a little disappointed. Still the 
Temple of Heaven is one of the finest things 
I have ever seen. 

We are not very gay here — only about half 
a dozen Europeans that I see, except for the 
occasional tourist. The latter is very few and 
far between. The more I see of the Northern 
Chinaman the more I like him, and at pre- 
sent we are very friendly with the Viceroy 
and his Foreign Office. Our third man has 
turned up, and, what is extraordinarily lucky, 
is an expert stenographer. Now that we have 
a type-writer we keep him fairly busy. 

Please give my regards to Mr. L. and the 
rest, and love to C — . 

Love, 

Neil 

C "9 3 



LETTERS 

[FROM A LETTER TO J. G. F.] 

Mukden, 051. 27 

. . . My life here so far has been one round 
of official visits ; little Willy in a frock coat 
and topper sitting cross-legged in a Chinese 
cart, waving a large red visiting card, with 
outriders going before, is a well-known sight. 
Also I have dined at the Yamen with the Vice- 
roy, and to-night we gave a bang-up dinner 
in return. It does n't sound, perhaps, as queer 
to you as it is, but just remember that there 
are only seven Europeans here in this city 
of 400,000 Chinese, missionaries excepted. I 
came in at about 5.15, the dinner being at 
6.30. No sooner had I arrived than the Tao 
Tai's card was announced, so out I bounced 
and sat him down with a cigarette, while 
Straight dressed. For twenty minutes we sat 
( hespeaks no English ) and bowed andsmiled, 
and then the door opened, and instead of 
Straight in walked an utter stranger, one Tou- 
Tung ( also no English ) , again bows and ci- 
garettes. Then Straight appeared and I fled to 
dress. When I got back — it wasn't yet 6.15 
— the whole crowd was there. More bows and 
cigarettes, then tea, and finally a good old- 
fashioned dinner. . . . 
There is one saving thing about Chinese 

C 120 ] 






LETTERS 

official dinners, they may start early, but they 
certainly finish soon. By 9 we were through, 
and Mr. Oliver and all of us went to our 
rooms and smoked. Really, though, it was 
quite a fancy dinner; the Viceroy, two Tao 
Tais, the Tou Tung, and a man named Lo, 
whose title I don't know. Now, thank Heaven, 
it is all over, and we shan't have to give a 
state affair for some time. One funny thing is 
the way everyone peeps through the windows 
at us, always. A Chinese Inn is made up of a 
number of one-storied buildings with large 
windows and no curtains. The rooms are about 
10x10, with a raised place on one side on 
which you sleep. Of the conveniences the less 
said the better. However, I think we shall get 
a house soon, in fact, we have a nine-room 
one in mind now. Things are horribly expen- 
sive here; I pay my Boy S7.50 a month, which 
is terrific here in China. . . . 

Thine, 

Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Mukden, Nov. 2 

Dearest M--: 

Your missing letter of the 6th turned up a 

day or two ago, together with one from S — . 



LETTERS 

Also your letter of the 26th arrived here on 
061. 26, which makes us seem much nearer 
than before. 

Very little has happened since I wrote, ex- 
cept routine office work and a vain search for 
houses. Now I am afraid it is too late, as it is 
28 to-day, so the time for repairs is over and 
it looks as if we should stay here all winter. 
However, we are fairly comfortable, and no- 
thing suffers but our dignity. The Japs have 
promised to give us one of the many unoccu- 
pied buildings they are still holding, . . . and 
the Tao Tai has now said he would help us, 
so we may have something before the year is 
out. 

We gave a dinner on Saturday last to the 
Viceroy, the two Tao Tais, the Tu Tung and 
a Mr. Lo. It was called for 6.30, but when I 
strolled in at 5.15 after a walk to the Fultons 
(to try to borrow some candlesticks), I found 
them all assembled, and Straight only half 
dressed. In I went and bowed low, — it is a 
great honour for the Viceroy to come to dine 
at a hotel, I can tell you, — gave them ciga- 
rettes and tea, and then sat and looked plea- 
sant while they talked Chinese until Straight 
appeared. Then I dressed in haste and re- 
turned just in time to prevent my fool Boy 
from passing round chocolate in cocktail glass- 
es, thinking that was what we meant. That 

C 122 ] 



LETTERS 

was corrected, and the celestials burned their 
throats and sat with tears in their eyes from 
our "American" drink. Mr. Oliver and Ar- 
nell made up the party, which broke up at 
eight, after a long dinner and short smoke. 
The Tu Tung (I don't know what he is ex- 
cept that he is second only to the Viceroy ) 
is a real Manchu, about 5 ft. 10, very good- 
looking, and the colour of the old fishermen 
round our coast. He has never been even so 
far away from Mukden as Newchwang, and 
won't believe America is where it is, in fa<5t, 
rather doubts its existence. We told him about 
the tall buildings, and he merely smiled sadly, 
so we showed him a circular we had, with a pic- 
ture of the Park Row Building in it, which he 
merely thought was a clever pifture, but any- 
one could draw a house like that. He and the 
TaoTaiand the Viceroy are very nice, friendly, 
witty and very progressive. The Viceroy has 
started an Agricultural College, and is talk- 
ing of getting some man from home to come 
and demonstrate machinery. Also, he has a 
mint, — and I am sure I must have written 
about the street repairs ! every one is so torn 
up that it is as much as your life is worth to 
walk. 

On Sunday we went out to the North Tomb. 
It is a four or five mile walk before you strike 
the entrance, a patch of fir trees with shrubs 
t 123 ] 



LETTERS 

covered with mistletoe, with red and yellow 
berries, and then you walk up an overgrown 
path for about half a mile to the gates. Again, 
it is beyond description. 1 11 take piftures now 
(by the way, I haven't had any developed 
yet) and that will give you some idea of it, 
only nothing can show the brilliant reds and 
yellows, blues and greens, of the walls and 
roofs. They are perfectly barbaric, yet they 
blend perfe&ly . First you come to a stone 
arch beautifully carved, back of which is the 
gate to the first courtyard. The door was n't 
open, so we climbed the wall and got in. This 
court is about 1/4 of a mile long, a broad path 
running up the middle to a small shrine, lined 
on either hand with carved animals, all the size 
of a house ; lions, bears, camels, elephants ( de- 
lightful fat ones) and horses. Back of these 
are the firs, which look like the pictures on 
plates. Beyond the shrine is the main court 
with the Tomb, but here we could n't get, as 
you need a pass. Everything brilliant, with a 
gorgeous blue sky overhead. ... As Straight 
said when we got back, a place like that to 
live in and you would have to be good always. 
A Newchwang man named D — was with us. 
He wants to come up here and work, which 
will be splendid. . . . 

Have I told you that our office furniture has 
arrived, ten carts full! It has been knocking 

C 124 ] 



LETTERS 

around here since before the war, when a Con- 
sulate was to have been opened, but could n't 
be, and the stuff will make excellent firewood. 
In notifying the Department of its arrival I 
told them it was broken, and that we had 
unpacked the " folio wing pieces; " but whether 
they will see the point I don't know. Some day 
I hope I can get a job there for a year or so, 
to see how they work, for out here it seems 
as if they just go ahead without ever think- 
ing. The different countries are divided alpha- 
betically, I believe, so that one man takes 
Chili, China, Costa Rica, etc. The trouble is, 
we are so sore about the house that I am afraid 
we complain a great deal. You see, we had 
just about engaged a temple when the de- 
spatch came saying we were to locate inside 
the walls. 

I am not going to buy a bally thing this 
year, it's not worth while until I know more 
about these things, so no one must expert a 
Christmas present. I am sorry, — but until I 
can talk there is no use buying things, my 
Boy is a regular high financier in the art of 
robbery by commission, and I cannot ask my 
Chief to do errands for me ! 

Best of love to all, 

Neil 

If M — is going to be sent out here, I wish 

r 125 ] 



LETTERS 

he could come to Newchwang, for his Bank 
is going to start a new office there, and it is 
only 9 hours off, very cold ones, to be sure, 
for the Japs don't heat their cars, still we could 
meet every once in a while. 



[FROM A LETTER TO HIS BROTHER] 

Nov. 2 

Dear J — : 

It is awfully interesting work out here ; rather 
lonely, but a wonderful place and climate. 
There are not many of us, only 6 mission- 
aries and their families and about half a dozen 
of us, all told, but pretty soon the other con- 
suls will turn up, and it will be a little more 
gay. My trip to Peking was bully, but really 
I find that I have a tremendous amount of lo- 
cal pride, and really prefer Mukden. I want 
to get a pony as soon as possible, and then 
perhaps I shall have time to see some of the 
sights here. Any description I can make of the 
place goes to M- - at once, so you will have 
to ask her to tell you what it is like. 

I wrote you from the Trans-Siberian to 
thank you for the "Shikspur," but have a sus- 
picion that those letters never got through, so 
once more, many thanks indeed. What do you 
think of me as a Typist? pretty fancy, I think. 

Give my love to C — and G — and anyone 

E 126 ] 



LETTERS 

like J. G. F., H. L., R. E. B., F. S., etc., and 
especially E — . 

As ever, 

Neil 



[FROM A LETTER TO MISS J. M.] 

Mukden, Nov. 4. 

Here it is worse than New York in the way 
things slide along ; before you know it another 
week has gone by. It does seem extraordi- 
narily natural — and pleasanter than even my 
most sanguine thoughts. 

Winter has set in, think of that! and all our 
clothes are somewhere on the ocean, for in an 
unwise moment we shipped them from Bre- 
men instead of taking them. The result, as 
you may easily imagine, is one of purple noses 
and fingers. Do you remember telling me 
about a book called "The Silent Places/' I 
think, in which intense cold is described? 
Well, that is what we feel here in summer 
clothes with the mercury refusing to budge 
over 20 , 

I had a most wonderful time in Peking and 
saw most marvellous sights. The Great Wall 
was one — an enormous, snake-like thing 
crawling away in the distance, over mountains, 
through streams, not troubling or stopping at 

C 127 ] 



LETTERS 

any obstacle. I saw it first in the twilight at 
Shan-Hin-Kwan, where it looked so mysteri- 
ous and silently powerful that I was glad to 
get back to the lights of the hotel. The twi- 
light here always a6ls on me like that, I want 
to get in and dream, yet I hate to leave it 
when the time comes. Such nights ! — the moon 
nearing the full, not a cloud anywhere, and 
only the little twinkling street lights, the offi- 
cials with their lantern-bearers walking on 
ahead, huge lanterns three or four feet high, 
of oiled silk with their titles painted on them 
in large red Chinese letters. I tell you, it's 
worth all the discomfort and the distance just 
to see it. And the days are just as beautiful, 
only I am usually too busy to see them. 

To-day we walked out of the city on the 
other side, to call on some missionaries. Walk- 
ing back it was perfectly beautiful; the sun 
just setting over the walls and gates, more 
like a fine old print than anything you can 
imagine, only the colours were so soft and 
blended ; the long gray walls with their pa- 
goda-gates against a faint pale pink sky. Night 
comes very quickly here, so the end of our 
walk was in darkness, except for the street 
lamps andhere and there an open door through 
which we could see shadow-like forms sitting. 
Flitting up and down in the dark were little 
Chinese lanterns, and every little while the 
l 128 ] 



LETTERS 

gleaming lamps of a 'rickshaw would pass. 
Really it seemed as though we were in a sort 
of dream, yet it was strangely familiar too. 
At first the mud-coloured walls seem queer, 
but you soon notice a kind of beauty in them, 
especially here where the lights are very clear 
and the colours are soft. With all the charm 
and beauty, however, one gets very lonely 
and there is a lot of time to think. That may 
change when we get our other quarters, but 
I notice it in every white person here. It is 
driving me to poetry and dreams — and letters. 



[FROM A LETTER TO N. B.] 

Mukden, Nov. 5 

Dear N — : 

As nearly as I can recall, to-morrow is Elec- 
tion Day in New York, which fa6l reminds me 
of some we spent together — therefore this. 
Also another thing which has kept you pain- 
fully before my mind is that I think, or rather 
fear, that I owe you a dinner for Port Arthur. 
That is naturally brought home to me here, 
only 24 hours from the spot, and also because 
I feel more than ever that I was right and you 
wrong in our desires about the war ! . . . 

You'd like this place immensely. A fine old 
walled city, with its eight gates surmounted 
by pagoda-like houses, the tiled roofs with 
[ 12 9 ] 



LETTERS 

porcelain dogs on the ridge-poles to keep off 
the devils, and its genial population, merry as 
the Devil, working and singing all day. The 
Northern Chinee is a fine big chap, not at all 
like our Pell St. friends, and the women's 
head-dress is so picturesque that you walk 
about smiling because you are here. Then be- 
sides the town, there are the tombs, and all 
their splendours, and great stretches of plain 
simply covered with wild ducks and geese, 
grouse, snipe, quail, pheasant, fox, wolf, deer 
— in fa6l, every sort of game ready to drop 
when they see a gun. Though our quarters 
are not of the best (brick beds and mats to 
sleep on, and very queer Chinese food), and 
though there are only about 20 white people 
here, it appeals to me more than any place I 
have seen for the devil of a while. New York 
— Oh, Lord — I hope I shan't see it for years. 
It 's hard work too, for the country is prafti- 
cally virgin, and we have to pile off reports 
every week, on the R. R/s, the forests, rivers, 
mines, and besides we have to keep close tab 
on the political doings. Thank Heaven there 
is absolutely none of the ordinary consular 
work, such as invoices, etc., here, it is purely 
a diplomatic post. If we can ever get a house 
I shall be glad, because to work, eat, sleep 
and receive Chinese officials in two rooms 
palls, and especially when we have to watch 
t x 30 n 



LETTERS 

all our letters and keep our things in locked 
trunks. Houses, though, are very hard to get, 
there being an influx of countrymen whose 
houses were burned in the war, and a number 
of new officials ( our Viceroy is very progres- 
sive and has started an agricultural college 
as well as a number of others). . . . We are 
bending every energy to getting some pro- 
stitutes out of an old official yam en, but the 
Japanese Consul seems rather doubtful. Some 
did offer to move if we would pay for the 
improvements they had built — a bathroom — 
but their bill was $3100, Mex., which, as our 
contingent fund is considerably less than that, 
we politely refused. The whole thing could n't 
have cost J 100, Mex. That's what we are up 
against ! 

The Chinese, on the other hand, are bully. 
The only trouble is that official calls — and you 
have to call on every bally official — take place 
before a true Southern gentleman, like B — , 
would have dreamed of getting up, and are 
celebrated by a flow of champagne, indige- 
nous ( I hope ) to China, which makes our Cali- 
fornia brands taste like neftar in comparison. 
The Viceroy is a corker, but the one I like 
best is the Fu-Tu-Tung, an old Manchu who 
has never been 100 miles from Mukden. 
When I pointed on a map to New York, and 
then showed on a teacup where it was in re- 

C 131 3 



LETTERS 

ference to Mukden, he merely smiled and 
said he did n't believe there was any place so 
far away. Then, to utterly flabbergast him, I 
produced a picture of the Park Row building 
which we had in a catalogue. That he merely 
thought was a nice idea, and treated it as he 
might a picture of a dragon, only I fancy he 
takes more stock in the latter. Once the Vice- 
roy gave us a dinner. I wish I still had the 
menu. Everything was mixed up. First tea, of 
course, then port, then beer, then white wine, 
more beer,then champagne, sherry and green 
mint. The eatables were just as confused — 
all foreign, except shark's-fin soup, which is 
very good indeed. That was all the poor old 
fellow could eat. 

I took a run to Peking ( four days' trip) and 
it seemed as if I had reached an enormous 
place. One actually met Europeans in the 
street, whereas here you do perhaps once a 
week. Besides that I stayed with Mr. John 
Coolidge and played with B. Phillips and his 
family, so that I might as well as not have 
been in Boston. There were two other Har- 
vard men there at work, Marshall of New 
York ( '94 ) and a young '04 man in the Cus- 
toms. The cities are much alike in appearance, 
so I shall have to confess that I was disap- 
pointed. Most people see Peking as their first 
Chinese city, but coming as it did it seemed 

C 132 ] 



LETTERS 

more foreign than native to me. Eleven hours 
in a Chinese cart through Northern Manchu- 
ria shows one a good deal of the native life. 
From what I have seen of the Treaty-port 
Europeans, I am thankful we have so few here 
(incidentally it gives me more time for my 
study of Chinese ) , for they are a pretty tough 
set. Their general conversation would open 
C — 's eyes as to lost opportunities. 

Make a general sprinkling of my regards, 
etc., among the G — s, F — s, H — s, O.B., 
C. H., C — s (twain) and anyone else, espe- 
cially to E — . 

Do write me sometimes if you have time to 
spare. 

As ever ' Neil 



[FROM A LETTER TO HIS BROTHER] 

Mukden, Nov. 6 

Dear B— : 

I wonder if you ever got my scrawl from the 
train containing my thanks, and if you did, 
were you able to read it? I hope so, not because 
it contained anything of value, but because I 
don't want to seem ungrateful, for that I most 
certainly am not. 

As you may have heard we got here on the 
2nd of last month, exceeding glad to do so too. 
Since then, with the exception of a two weeks' 
[ 133 ] 



LETTERS 

trip, — to Peking and back, — we have been 
hard at work straightening out things and 
looking for houses. . . . 

It is a wonderful place. The city itself is a 
miniature edition of Peking, square, walled, 
gray houses, and a palace with its gold-bronze 
roof to take the place of the Forbidden City 
of Peking. For all the fighting around it, and 
the long occupations by both Japanese and 
Russians, it is an absolutely unspoiled and 
untouched Chinese city, where we handful of 
Europeans are still enough of a novelty to 
have crowds follow when we walk out. The 
crowds, however, are merely genial, friendly 
people, who ask your name, or whether you 
are a doftor or not, just as different from 
my beloved scowling Turks as anything that 
could be imagined. If you liked Persia, you 
would go crazy over China — at least the parts 
I have seen. 

The other consuls have not yet arrived. I 
have met both the British, and his Vice, and the 
German, who are very nice; but the Russian 
and French are unknown quantities. How- 
ever, we have more than we can do, and lack 
of company helps the study of Chinese. Once 
we get a house and we can get ponies, and 
then the country will be open to us. I have n't 
seen the Palace yet, but if it's like the Tombs 
it will be about the finest thing going. The 
[ 134 ] 



LETTERS 

North Tomb is too wonderful for description. 
It gives the same contemplative feeling you 
get at one of the English Universities, only 
with a wealth of colour. Every day I am thank- 
ful to be here. Shooting also is excellent, but 
my gun, like my heavy clothes, is somewhere 
on the way, and it's about 20 here now! 

Give my love to E — , also Julian P. if you 
see him. Do write a line once in a while. 

Affly, 

Neil 

[from a letter to h. g.m.] 

Mukden, Nov. 8 

Yesterday, as I was walking down the Ssu 
Ping Gai after a matinee at the opera, and 
looking at all the eleftric lights spring up in 
the dusk, conscious of the annoying clang and 
clatter of the street cars, I — well, that 's not 
what it is like, but it's a great deal easier to 
say what it is not than what it is. Howsome- 
dever, what I wanted to say was that I hear 
your bank is to open its doors at Newchwang, 
so if you are to be sent to the East, why don't 
you go there if possible, for there we shall be 
a mere 9 hours apart ? . . . I certainly like the 
place well enough to stay here five or six 
years. . . . 

C 135 ] 



LETTERS 

[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Mukden, Nov. 8 

A home mail to-day, with a letter from you, 
one from S — , and two bunches of clippings, 
for which I was very thankful. Some of the 
ships carry the mail through to Shanghai, so 
we are very uncertain when to expeft any. 
It is funny to read of my Moscow letters — it 
all seems ages ago. Thank S — , and ask her 
why she did n't send the pictures of the family 
under the " forest" as well as the one of Miss 
H. and the spider? None of the things we 
sent by water have arrived, so I am entirely 
without pictures of my family ; and there are 
times when I want them very much. So I hope 
some future mail will bring them. 

To-day I sent, via Shanghai, . . . the pictures 
I had taken on the way. They went addressed 
to J. C. F. partly because I was n't sure where 
you were — they are registered — and partly 
because if you are in California, they will be 
looked at by those in the East and then sent 
on to you. So you had better tell them they 
are for you, though I marked a "--"in the 
corner of the envelope. 

I forget when I wrote last, but I think it 
was about a week ago. At any rate I have 
been to the Emperor's birthday party since, 
t 136 3 



LETTERS 

and there I saw some Chinese juggling. Glory 
be ! For one hour and a half I sat spell-bound, 
watching a little Chinaman do impossible 
things. You remember Ching-Ling-Foo in 
America? Well, this man did all he did with 
one hand. Where Ching took out one bowl 
from nowhere, this one took nine. A few days 
later he came round to get a testimonial, and 
showed us what he called a simple little thing. 
It was merely to set a cup upside down on the 
table at which we were sitting, and throw five 
little beads into it without touching it. That is, 
they were in his hand, and then suddenly ap- 
peared in the cup, and he was more than two 
feet away all the time ! Then he made one dis- 
sipate from his hand and materialize again ! ! ! 
If we ever get a house we are going to give 
a blow-out and have him. He has two sons of 
6 and 8, who are learning it; he is the fifth 
generation at it, but so far their efforts are di- 
rected towards contortion, which they do bet- 
ter than any I have seen, and not in such a 
manner that it looks painful. 

... So let it suffice that I tell you to read 
Millard's book called "The Problems of the 
Far East/' and tell everyone else to read it 
also. Everyone out here recommends it as a 
"sane, impartial and fair book/' 

We have found a perfectly bully compound 
in the city, but its price is very high. How- 
C !37 ] 



LETTERS 

ever, as it is apparently the only one, I rather 
guess we will take it if we can get it. As nei- 
ther the Russians or Japanese ever paid any- 
thing for the houses they took, the Chinese 
are rather unwilling to rent to foreigners. At 
present we are trying to have a Tientsin ar- 
chitect buy it and rent it to us, hoping we can 
persuade our Government to buy it later. If 
we get it we shall have by far the most com- 
fortable house in North China ; but I 'm afraid 
it's merely a castle in the air. 

Only one visitor this week ; but there is an- 
other up here, though I haven't seen him, 
and a French officer staying here who does n't 
seem to want to know us. Straight has gone to 
Yingkou for a few days, so I am keeping up a 
solitary state here, as Arnell continues to live 
at a Japanese hotel. Still, it gives me a much 
better time to study Chinese, as the teacher 
is our "writer," and now I can do six hours 
a day and make no progress. It is so funny to 
sing out phrases with him that I got hysterics 
to-day once, much to his alarm; but really, 
to shout out a foolish sentence about "a hill 
200 li high," in unison, is too foolish. My Boy 
gets bluer and bluer as my lessons go on, for 
he knows he will get chucked as soon as I 
can talk any. It 's his own fault, for he cer- 
tainly steals mightily; not by taking our things, 
but by commissions, and once I caught him 
C 138 ] 



LETTERS 

trying to squeeze our washerman. There was 
an awful scene, and since then he has been 
much better. 

It is getting more and more interesting here 
all the time. Now the Viceroy has decided not 
to receive us any more, but to let the Tao Tai, 
and of course we have to refuse that, which 
is rather complicated. Also, they maintain that 
the city itself is not open, whereas the treaty 
specifically says it is — that is why we are to 
live inside — and so there is a great deal of 
talk about that. Gradually the others are com- 
ing up; the German next week and Fulford 
soon after. Both of them have houses, though, 
while I poke daily into the dirtiest sort of 
compounds imaginable. One great thing about 
the house we are after here is that it is new 
and fairly clean. We should have room for a 
tennis-court inside our wall, and quite a big 
garden as well. No one outside believes that it 
is hard to get houses, but besides the influx of 
Japs, there are any quantity of Chinese who 
were burned out during the war and have 
come to live here. To corre6l the idea, we are 
trying to get Mr. Coolidge to come up here on 
his way home. The German is spending =6750, 
Fulford ,£400; while we are allowed $900! 
It means Straight going into his own pocket, 
but, thank Heaven, it is not so expensive here 
as in New York, so he can afford to. 



LETTERS 

I had quite a touch of local pride the other 
day, when I was walking on the walls with 
a Newchwang man. Really one gets awfully 
fond of the place, and once we are settled 
and have time to explore, it will be wonderful. 
It's fairly small too, so you get to know some 
of the people. Almost every day I am out, I 
meet some Chinamen I know. All I can say is 
" hao," but it does. Of course I could tell them 
about my hill, but unfortunately that leads 
nowhere ( if it did I should be stumped ) , so 
we bow and walk on. Such weather too! only 
one rainy day so far ( then the mud was over 
your boots, but who cared), clear and frosty, 
with glorious sunsets. My report is gone — 
hurrah! — and now I can turn my attention to 
the situation here. Our report on that will 
open people's eyes, I think. 

Love, 

Neil 



[FROM A LETTER TO J. G. F.] 

Mukden, Nov. 8 

. . . The East is one of the most narrowing 
places there is, I suppose, for I certainly won- 
der how anyone can be seriously interested in 
anything anywhere else. Then besides, Muk- 
den seems such an important place, on account 
C 140 ] 



LETTERS 

of its being the capital of Manchuria. In some 
ways ( I am going to bore you with some of our 
mix-ups ) it must be more or less like the very 
early days in China, except that there is a new 
element now, — Japan. For example, by our 
treaty with China, Mukden, Antung, Tieling 
and other places were to be opened, but now 
China says that it only means the land out- 
side the city, not the city itself. To show them 
that we mean the city proper, Peking (that is, 
our Legation) has ordered us to live in the 
city. Then the Viceroy — a most pleasant old 
boy to meet — has just issued a note to the 
foreign consuls saying that he won't treat with 
them, but his Tao Tai will, instead. Of course 
we refused that, but if he refuses to meet us, 
what can we do? Since the move nothing has 
come up which has necessitated our seeing 
him. Then again, though there is a foreign con- 
cession outside the city, the Chinese Govern- 
ment has bought up all the land and refuses 
to sell to us foreigners, which is a thing we 
shall have to force them to do. . . . All these 
things make our work here very interesting. 
So far everything has been smooth, but it looks 
to me as if there were breakers ahead. 



[ 141 ] 



LETTERS 

[TO HIS SISTER-IN-LAW] 

Mukden, Nov. 13 

Dear C— : 

I had a letter from M- - to-day, saying how 
ill your mother is, and I want merely to say 
how sorry I am, and that I hope she will be 
up and about long before this reaches you. 

There is a lot of time in which to think out 
here, away from the " world " and completely 
out of touch with one's friends, and I have 
been regretting that I did not have time to 
say good-bye to you at all ; but things went at 
such a pace, there did not even seem time to 
realize that I was going — and I cannot fully 
realize that I am here yet. We are pretty busy 
with routine work every day, besides which I 
am immersed in Chinese up to my tuft. I used 
to think that you and I had pretty bad hand- 
writings, but bless me, the Chinese print puts 
us to shame, and their writing is simple h — 1. 
The worst of it is that one never seems to ad- 
vance at all, and were it not for the fa£t that 
Mr. Oliver — the Customs man here — has 
been at it for 25 years and still takes lessons, 
I should begin to think I was merely dumb. 

The Chinese children have won my heart 

and my pocketbook. They are perfectly bully, 

bright-eyed, friendly little chaps, who smile 

at me whenever we meet. Really, if we did n't 

[ 142 ] 



LETTERS 

have such laws I'd adopt one, and bring him 
home when I come. They have the same ex- 
pressive eyes that Hermann K. has — do you 
wonder they get all my pennies? Their pa- 
rents live in constant dread of the devil run- 
ning off with their sons ( daughters don't seem 
to count ) , so to fool him they put earrings on 
their children when they are very young, and 
the foolish Old Nick thinks they are all girls. 
Really that seems the only fear they have, 
and they even put little porcelain dogs on 
their roofs to scare him away. The only pur- 
chase I shall make for some time is one of 
these dogs, for I find I can get one off one of 
the tombs which they are repairing. It is n't 
stealing, for if I didn't get it, it would be 
broken up and thrown away. 

Mukden is the most charming city I have 
ever seen. Great gray walls and houses with 
their gold and gayly coloured signs outside. 
At twilight especially I love it, when from the 
wall you see a sea of tiled roofs with the little 
white smoke coming up against the most glo- 
rious sunset sky you can imagine. Somehow 
at such a time you forget every sordid thing, 
and feel as you do in a cloister. I never have 
wished that I could paint till now, but if I could 
get the effects and colours down I should be 
perfectly satisfied. 

There is absolutely no society here, beyond 
C *4S ] 



LETTERS 

three missionary wives and half a dozen of 
the consular men. Our evenings are usually 
spent at work till about 10.30, then reading 
or writing till we go to bed. To-day I de- 
clared a holiday, and just enjoyed living in the 
open air. It was a glorious Indian summer 
day, with home mail in the morning, and just 
eleven weeks since I left, and six since I ar- 
rived. My Chinese teacher went about with a 
very puzzled expression when I only read 
three pages with him. I fancy he has quite 
given up trying to understand me. Love to 
J — and the children, and your father and 
mother. 

A%, 

Neil 



[ TO HIS MOTHER ] 

Mukden, Nov. 18 

Dearest M--: 

Viceroys — pish! Carts — pooh! To-day we 
went in chairs (carried by four men, with a 
sort of outrider along also ) and called on 
H.R.H. Prince Ssai Chien, cousin of the Em- 
peror, who is up here on some investigating 
junket (China is fully awake, you see), and 
found an aftive young man, rather bored with 
the continual hand-shaking. Just the three of 
us, his interpreter and councillor, Mr. Oliver 

C 144 ] 



LETTERS 

and himself. It did n't last long, thank Heaven, 
else we should have frozen, for it's already 
well below zero, and the Chinese houses are 
not heated. All a Chinaman has to do is to put 
on another furred robe, and he is all right. It 
gives them a very funny look, and men who 
looked quite thin when we first knew them, 
now look like a Russian coachman. Straight 
has to go there to dinner — is gone, in fa6l — 
but took precautions to put on three suits of 
underclothes. I — thank Heaven once more — 
am sitting here in our inn, warm and comfy. 
And that is what we did to-day, when I sup- 
pose Harvard is playing Yale — and, I hope, 
winning. One more event marks the day ; I 
have a Boy. We have been deciding to change 
ours for some time, and yesterday got a wire 
from Newchwang that two new ones were 
on the way, so we screwed up our courage, — 
but decided to put it off till to-day. All night 
I had nightmares, not that he would refuse 
to go, but that I should n't have courage to do 
it, and should find myself with two. Luckily 
he was rather worse than usual to-day, so I 
exploded, and said he might go for good. I told 
him he was lazy, dirty, went out too much 
without leave, stole too much, and was in short 
a bad one. All this was done in fear and trem- 
bling, and then, when I was quite through, 
he eagerly asked if he could go at once, 
[ 145 ] 



LETTERS 

grabbed his wages (full for this month, and 
cheap at that), and fled, without either wash- 
ing dishes or making my bed. My new Boy 
is quite the reverse of the other, being aftive, 
small and thin, and I am glad to say he does not 
smoke opium, as my other did. But one thing 
I know; this is the last change I shall make, 
no matter what this one turns out to be! 
Straight did the same, so except for our faith- 
ful old coolie we have an entirely new outfit. 
Our coolie looks like the picture of the Sim- 
pleton in Howard Pyle's "Simpleton and his 
Little Black Hen." 

Our house situation is the same, so I rather 
guess we are here for the winter. It 's not bad 
now that our supplies have come and there are 
thick clothes and blankets, not to speak of 
books. The latter we don't have time for, be- 
cause there is so much back work to catch up. 
Of course all our official stuff has been knock- 
ing around for three years out here, and as 
the Government must have a complete invoice 
I have been busy counting the forms and en- 
velopes and generally checking up. What we 
are to do with a Census of Cuba for 1899, I 
cannot guess, but it's here. But then we get 
lots of stuff. Only yesterday we had an inquiry 
from a manufacturer asking about the sales of 
diving-suits! I answered that the wells were 
small, that one could wade the only river near, 

C 146 d 



LETTERS 

and that a glance at the map would show 
where Mukden was if they turned to the 
northeast part of China. 

Next week I am ordered off to shoot wild 
turkey for Thanksgiving. I may get a deer or 
two as well, and perhaps a Hung-Hutze ! for 
I shall have to go to Khaiyiian, a town north 
of Tieling. It will be fun, but rather cold, I 
fancy. Did I tell you how I bought my gun? 
The owner (I did not know) was in Peking, 
the gun in Shanghai ( I only knew its size ) ,and 
I in Tientsin, and I bought it overthe telephone. 
Rather like buying a pig in a poke, is n't it? 

There were eight foreigners at this inn one 
day last week, not counting us. 

Love, 

Neil 



[FROM A LETTER TO J. G. F.] 

Mukden, Nov. 18 

. . . Now that supplies have come, we are fairly 
comfortable, but cramped. The good Lord 
w r atched out and kept fairly moderate weather 
until our thick clothes and blankets arrived, 
but now it is around the zero mark with an 
alarming persistency. Also one drawback to 
playing pioneer is that it is too cold to get any 
bottled goods here, or have them sent up. We 
C 147 ] 



LETTERS 

are forced to drink boiled water only now, for 
the six dozen claret and one whiskey we have 
won't go very far in four months. 

. . . My Boy I have changed, and got a nice 
small one who seems good. To-day, I asked 
him about Christianity, and he said he knew 
all about it. " One piece man named Jesus, his 
Father belong God, and they kill him, and he 
belong topside/' Nice simple history! The 
other rascal I had got the go-by as soon as I 
found this one, and for a while we had no- 
thing but a faithful old coolie left. He is a 
wonder and keeps me laughing all day. Every 
once in a while he stops and stares at the clock 
for five minutes in pure wonder, and when we 
typewrite he can hardly go out of the room. 
One day when we had no mail to go he was 
frightfully disappointed, and kept giving me his 
official card-case ( an enormous red-and-gold 
oiled paper affair) and staring. Our two old 
Boys worked him to death, but now he is quite 
chipper, for we raised his wages a whole dol- 
lar ( Mex. ) a month ; he gets $10 next month. 

To-day, while all of you were at the Yale 
game ( at least I have figured that it came to- 
day ) , we were in our very gladdest rags, very 
cold, riding to meet a Prince. No carts for us 
to-day, . . . and we suffered for it with the cold, 
our toppers gleaming and our white waistcoats 
shining. The Prince is up here investigating 

C 148 ] 



LETTERS 

something, and everyone is trembling for his 
head. He was most genial, sent for us and re- 
ceived us before the others. . . . Really I cannot 
catch on to the idea that I am an important 
person here, yet I am, and never a Prince can 
come to Mukden but he must shake my hand. 
Think of that! 

We have been rather gay of late, eight for- 
eigners here at one time. That is one of the 
funny things about China; when we first came 
here no one ever came to this inn, but now it 
is the popular one. . . . How news travels so 
fast I don 't know, but everyone knows of it 
now, and the landlord thinks we are corkers. 
In fa6t, he thinks we are so nice he won't help 
us to find a house ! 



[FROM A LETTER TO MISS J. M.] 

November zind 

This morning we had a frightful shock when 
the innkeeper announced that he was going 
to close up because some one had waltzed into 
his office and eloped with $200. We invited 
him in, poured gallons of tea down his throat, 
gave him a million or more cigarettes, and fi- 
nally persuaded him he was foolish to close 
just when he was getting the foreign trade. 
That trying affair was no sooner ended than 

C 149 J 



LETTERS 

the barber came to chop off some of our long 
Bill Cody-like curls, and Straight being No. 1 
took the chair first — one of our dining and 
reception room best. Right in the middle of the 
operation, who should walk in but the Tao- 
Tai — in case I never told you, he is the Mayor 
— to make a very formal call. With my usual 
presence of mind I jumped up and played the 
" Wall" in imitation of " Midsummer Night's 
Dream/' — while Arnell carried on a polite 
conversation in Japanese somewhat like this : 

Arnell: Mr. Straight wishes [snip-clip] 
me to say [clip-snip] that he will [snip-clip] 
be in in a [clip-snip] minute. 

Tao: Mr. Straight [snip-clip] speaks Chi- 
nese like [clip-snip] a true Pekinese. 

Straight: Arnell — help! tell this Jap bar- 
ber not to cut my hair all off. 

Me ( through Arnell) : Won't Mr. Tao have 
[snip-clip] another cigarette? 

Straight [emerging): How do you do? I 
am sorry I was out when you came. 

Whereupon the conversation is carried on in 
Chinese. Arnell and I retreat and get pretty 
well clipped, so our hair ( what is left ) is pom- 
padour. And in the middle of that who should 
come in but our one subject wanting a pass- 
port. Really, life in a few rooms in a Chinese 
inn has drawbacks — and our house is a very 
fancy article in Spain as yet. 

C 150 ] 



LETTERS 

However, to change the subject before I 
get too excited, 1 11 babble on once more about 
the North Tomb. I went there a few days 
ago and by great luck got into the very tomb 
itself. Before, I felt the peace and quiet of the 
place, but this time I really felt the sanftity. 
The inner tomb is surrounded by a wall about 
20 feet high enclosing a space of two or three 
acres. Not a sound is heard in here, and the 
little temple building had a feeling of abso- 
lute peace and quiet. Overhead was a cloud- 
less blue sky with an occasional pheasant 
whirring across. Napoleon's tomb in Paris 
gives one more or less the same feeling, but 
there you do not have the joy of the open air. 
It is like the Altar to Heaven at Peking inas- 
much as you feel so very close to the Power. 
Walking away (I was entirely alone) again 
I felt the wonderment that anyone should 
ever do wrong. Yet they call this a heathen 
country ! Why, the Parthenon is nothing to it, 
and we call that the greatest piece of archi- 
tecture there is. Nothing that I have yet seen 
would suit me better as a haven to end my 
days in. It seems almost profane, yet the next 
time I go there I am going to take pictures of 
it, and then you will have some idea — except 
of the colours. . . . 



c 151 3 



LETTERS 

[FROM A LETTER TO MISS A. L. P.] 

Mukden, 
November zznd, 1906 

Dear A — : 

Your letter came like a pleasant thunderbolt, 
if there be such a thing. . . . Do you want to 
know what Mukden is like? We are eight, 
but the Chinese are as numberless as the tears 
that were shed at Southampton on hearing of 
my departure — and even then some more. 

If you could see the two old beggars we 
have for coolies, and our two spick-and-span 
little " Boys/' who a6l like useful shadows all 
the time ! We don't even have time to light a 
match before they do it for us. It is like being 
a king without its worry. Why, at last I have 
found the — There I go. I almost forgot I was 
broken-hearted and mournful — but don't tell. 

I am now going to pick up a gun and take 
a fall out of a few turkeys and hares. 

Thanks for writing ; keep it up. 

Be good. A 

& As ever, XT 

Neil 



[FROM A LETTER TO H. N.] 

Mukden, November 23 

And the cold crept on like a flow of ice till 
everything was frozen hard, and the unfortu- 

C 152 n 



LETTERS 

nate Bottled Goods who were taking a jun- 
ket from Newchwang to Mukden, in order 
that they might make a short stay at the Ame- 
rican Consulate-General, froze up in the train, 
and burst with a loud noise. 

Meanwhile, having been notified of their 
expected arrival, all was bustle at the Con- 
sulate-General. The table groaned under an 
array of expectant glasses, while the sand- 
wich lay in glorious isolation on an erstwhile 
snow-white napkin. All at once the deadly 
stillness was broken and carts were heard, 
creaking as if under a heavy load, to approach 
the courtyard, and the kind Consul-General 
with true hospitality went to the door in order 
that he might give the travel-worn party a 
hearty welcome. The Deputy walked quickly 
around the room, giving the fire a poke and 
straightening the glasses. At the sound of 
voices in the hallway, he hurried to the door, 
which was hastily dashed open, and the Con- 
sul-General burst in, white and gasping, mur- 
muring: "All, all is lost!" 

(Curtain, hastily, while the audience sob.) 

Thus began the long dry winter of 1906-7. 
For there ain't a drop in Mukden. 

Written while sitting on a stove and watch- 
ing the mercury drop down the thermometer 
till nothing is left but a small globule rolling 
round in agony in the very bottom. 

C 153 J 



LETTERS 

Thus do the pioneers of Mukden lead the 
Simple Life ! 







[FROM A LETTER TO H. M.] 

Mukden, Nov, 24 

. . . The most wonderful place and climate 
that it has been my luck to see. It is rather cold, 
. . . but with the dry climate 10 or 12 below 
zero doesn't count much. China, and more 
particularly Manchuria, for me forever ! The 
Chinese too are fine, just as genial as the 
best. They do have some rather nasty habits, 
though, — for instance, we ran across a couple 
to-day, who were selling their children in the 
street, because they were out of work and 
cold. It gave me a rather funny feeling to see 
the poor little beggars snivelling off in the 
corner, but as there wasn't anything to do, 
I gave them a few dollars to get food with. 

C 154 ] 



LETTERS 

Then they have another nasty trick of throw- 
ing their dead children into the ditch outside 
the outer wall, wrapped in straw matting. It 
is nasty to see the stray dogs fighting over 
such things. I always shoot when I do. 

Never before have I known what it meant 
to live like a king. Here we are still in a Chi- 
nese hotel and likely to be all winter, but what 
with two Boys and two coolies who do every- 
thing short of eating for us, I begin to see 
what is meant. . . . 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Mukden, Nov. 25 

Dearest M — : 

The Empress Dowager's birthday, and half 
frozen. It is now 10.45 p. m. and we are just 
back from a dinner that started at 5, — in a 
barn-like spot, with a million doors and no 
heat. Of course we knew it would be cold, and 
wore as much as we could get on under our 
outer clothes, but nevertheless we were fro- 
zen quite stiff when we got back. 

Forty-one of us sat down to the intermin- 
able feast, where their motto is: "When in 
doubt, serve soup/' and ate for four hours to 
the accompaniment of select portions of the 
Chinese drama. Thanks to my humble posi- 



LETTERS 

tion I was placed at the head of the second 
table, with Arnell on my right, and the old Fu 
Tou Tung next me, so I was able occasion- 
ally to talk. Dish after dish came on, and clash 
after clash of the brass instruments followed, 
till we were nearly frantic. Once, towards 
the middle, a gleam of hope came when they 
brought on English plum pudding, but it 
turned out to be merely an eccentricity, and 
meat followed. Next but one on my right was 
a splendid old Manchu who had never been 
to a foreign dinner before, and really I felt 
quite sorry for him when I heard him sigh after 
trying in vain to use his knife and fork. On 
the other side was a Japanese who went to the 
other extreme and ate his bread with a knife 
and fork. . . . 

In one large square room the tables were 
arranged three sides round a court, with the 
stage opposite the head table. On all sides were 
crowds of retainers and soldiers, who, I think, 
were the only ones w T ho appreciated the play. 
Just behind me, on a raised platform or k'ang, 
were the rows of various high officials, all 
young — six or seven — and quite the nicest- 
looking children I have seen for years. They 
didn't quite know which way to look , foreign- 
ers were an awful rarity and the play was ex- 
cellent, so, poor chaps, they kept turning their 
heads as we do in a three-ring circus. If only 
C 156 ] 



LETTERS 

I were rich enough I would adopt one of them 
and show you all what a true "heathen" is 
like. Dinner ( I lost count after the first six 
or seven dishes) consisted of soup, fish, soup, 
meat, soup, plum-pudding, meat, and then 
about ten more dishes in much the same order. 
I am enclosing the menu and my name-card. 

When I tell you that I wore three sets of 
Jaeger underclothes, the "iceman's jacket/' 
a flannel shirt, two waistcoats and my frock 
coat, and was still cold, you can fancy what it 
was like. The only comfort I got (outside of 
the children) was seeing the others shiver. 
But these dinners are over till the Emperor's 
birthday in June. 

I wish I could write a decent description of 
it all, but not only I can't, but my ideas as 
well as my body are frozen. It has n't been 
5° above for a week past. 

Love, 

Neil 



[FROM A LETTER TO J. G. F.] 

Mukden, Nov. 28 

Many happy returns of the day, Sir, only I 
take care not to wish you any returns of the 
deed. I meant to telegraph, but got rather 
confused by the Chinese calendar till too late, 

1 157 j 



LETTERS 

so this will follow you for a month or two, to 
show you that I was thinking of you. God 
bless me — it's awful the way you all go and 
double up to zero, leaving me more thor- 
oughly alone than miles only could do. Well, 
it's all for the best, and when I get bored 
doing this I may try my hand at it. 

Last Something or other was the Empress 
Dowager's birthday, and with reluctance we 
rode out to a dinner at 5 p. m. Near me was 
a splendid old Manchu who had never been 
to a "foreign" dinner before. I fancy, poor 
old chap, he wished he hadn't come before 
we were through. The three soups were all 
he could eat, though he tried manfully each 
time to handle his knife and fork, only to lav 
them down on the plate and utter heartrend- 
ing sighs. When the fish came on somewhere 
in the middle of the dinner, he had a brief 
hope, but unfortunately saw me take sauce 
from the cruet, and thinking that that was 
quite the thing, and that all the bottles were 
alike, grabbed the mustard and helped him- 
self to a mountain. I was laughing so I had 
to look down at my lap, but one mouthful 
nearly caused a riot, however, he soon forgot 
his woes, and even consented to smile and 
drink with me. On Arnell's other side was a 
Japanese who could speak English. Suddenly 
I heard Arnell chuckle violently, and he told 

: 158 : 



LETTERS 

me when we got home, that the Jap had said: 
" Excuse me for cockroaching on your time." 
Arnell politely said : " Oh, you mean encroach- 
ing — but you have n't been doing it." Where- 
upon the other said: "Oh yes, that must have 
been a mistake. I forgot the word was femi- 
nine/' A6lual fa6l. 

So you see that except for the intense cold 
the dinners are rather amusing — and the work 
is getting more and more interesting. 



[TO HIS BROTHER] 

Mukden, November ^md 

Dear B— : 

We are still in our hotel, with no prospect of 
getting a house at present, though we have 
made the Legation write to the Department 
recommending the purchase of one we found 
in the city. Yet we manage to be pretty com- 
fortable here, with a couple of new rooms 
which we have just taken, and our two Boys 
(mine is far better than Ali ever was) are 
demons for work. They are new, for one day 
we had a revolution and chucked our other 
rascals. 

The Chinese are getting mighty uppish just 

now, and are trying to make us think they 

own China. Fortunately the only things we 

run against them in are when we have trea- 

C 159 J 



LETTERS 

ties to back us up, but they are slower than 
ever, and rather inclined not to meet us at 
any cost when we try to see them on busi- 
ness. When we meet socially we are great 
friends, though. Still, that is to be expe&ed, 
and we cannot kick. 

As to Mandarin robes, so far I have n't seen 
them here, and I believe there are none to 
be picked up. They cost, I am told, in Peking, 
$60, $70 Mex. apiece, but if there are any 
here they will probably be about 10 per cent 
more, as that is the general rule, for here the 
Russians have been in the habit of spending 
freely, and everything has a false value. How- 
ever, I am on the lookout, and if I get hold 
of any I will get them for you. . . . 

I don't know what other consulates do, but 
we are busy, busy every minute, only time 
enough for a five or six mile walk each day. 
Then in odd minutes I plug away at Chinese, 
which, without exaggeration, is H — 1. Lately 
I have been looking for houses with the 
teacher, and we carry on an animated kinder- 
garten conversation all the while. He is a 
splendid, dignified old cock, who is highly 
amused by me and my lessons. For the rest, 
I am devoted to the Northern Chinese, the 
children are wonderful, and the men and wo- 
men just as genial and friendly as can be. 

Will you do me a favour, and send out some 
C 160 j 



LETTERS 

of your English and Italian songs? Straight 
sings ; besides, I like your things. . . . 
Love to E — . 

Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

MukdeNj Dec. I 

Dearest M--: 

I am enclosing a map of Mukden, showing as 
nearly as I can, where we all live. The R. R. 
is about two miles off to the west on the same 
road that we are on, and though the map 
does n't show it, the road is for the most part 
lined with houses. The population varies in 
estimate from 150,000 (the British- American 
Tobacco Company's man) to 300,000 (the 
missionaries), so the handful of whites is 
thoroughly lost. The place where Mr. Oliver 
lives is the Foreign Office Yamen, where all 
our interviews take place. 

Houseless still, and desperate ; for there has 
been a misunderstanding with our innkeeper. 
He has found that hotel business is unpro- 
fitable in the winter, and so, after an agree- 
ment by which we pay #100 per month for 
our rooms and $65 apiece for food, — all Mex- 
ican dollars, — he handed in a bill for $5 a day ! 
At present we are arbitrating through Mr. 
Fulton, and I rather guess it will come out 
C 161 ^ 



LETTERS 

our way, as Mr. Fulton knew of our agree- 
ment; but it may break our friendly relations. 
Added to this we have bitten off our noses 
by asking Peking to recommend the purchase 
of a place, which they have done. Now we 
shall not hear for three or four months, and 
if the Department orders us to buy they won't 
allow rent for any other place, and the Chi- 
nese never rent a house for under a year. We 
are going ahead on the hope they will ignore 
our recommendation if we find a house, and 
hoping they will let us know by cable if we 
don't. Also, as Peking has ordered us to live 
in the city, and the Viceroy has just said for- 
eigners can't, we expect to have much fuss 
and trouble. Our house will be taken by our 
" writer," if we find one, so that the first thing 
they know is that we are inside with Old 
Glory above us. Meanwhile I am perfect ly 
comfortable here — we have taken two more 
rooms and Arnell has left his Japanese hotel 
to live here with us — but feel rather insecure. 
The worst of it is we are more or less un- 
packed, so if we merely have to move to an- 
other hotel it will be a bore. 

On Thanksgiving we had our subject to 
dinner, and, as I was not able to go to Khai- 
yiian and shoot wild turkey, a pheasant in- 
stead. Rather a tedious affair it was, but it's 

C 162 ] 



LETTERS 

over for a while — our next celebration will 
be Christmas. 

Last night Straight and I dined at the Ross's 
— a dinner of 9 ! ! ! Dr. Ross is nicer and nicer 
every time I see him, only he does n't ever 
know us apart. The Christies were there, Miss 
Davidson and Dr. ( Miss ) Starmar, both from 
the Woman's Hospital, where there are four, 
not three, as I said on the map (they are back 
of the Christies'), Dr., Mrs. and Miss Ross 
and ourselves. All of them were here during 
Boxer times, and were quite thrilling about it. 
Dr. Starmar took the last train out! These 
ladies travel all over Manchuria alone, preach- 
ing and nursing. . . . 

I continue to suffer from eupepsy, but Ar- 
nell now has bad eyes and I spend the greater 
part of each day in applying lotions and drops 
to them. Straight, under my nursing, has dis- 
covered that if one goes to bed at twelve in- 
stead of one-thirty, one feels much better. 
Work continues as hectic as ever, and my 
Chinese suffers accordingly, but I think next 
week I shall have more time for it; that is, 
the teacher has been persuaded to give me 
more time in the evening. 

Mr. Mezger and Mr. Fulford are both up 
here now, so we are rather gay. Next week 
we are going to a tea ! Mrs. Fulton has asked 

C 163 n 



LETTERS 

us to meet the lady do&ors, and Mrs. Huji- 
wara. In fa6t, if it were not for our trouble 
with Chao, we should be happy. 

My books are unpacked. Many thanks to 
you for " Captain Simeon" and Emerson — he 
is better out here than ever — and to S — for 
the surprise of Bernie. I gave "Rejected of 
Men" to Straight to read, with the result of 
throwing him into a fit of hatred against the 
slow-witted public, and a desire that everyone 
he knows should read it at once. There was 
an autograph letter of Pyle's in front, which 
he begged to read — of course I told him to — 
and now he is unhappy because it says no- 
thing about the book. He wants to lend it to 
the missionaries ! 

My new boy is my " Ali" and never have 
I been better taken care of. The only trouble 
is my Mongolian boots, which he thinks make 
me lose "face" to wear, and as they are very 
comfortable I wear them always in the house. 
It does make me feel rather like a slave- 
driver, though, to have him call me "master." 
My room is a work of art — on the lines 
of what a Chinese thinks a European room 
should be, and he is so modest that he has 
curtained off my bed, so that it cannot be seen 
during the day; but as one dresses with a 
continual stream of coolies pouring through, 
washing the floors, etc., I am not really mo- 
C 164 J 



LETTERS 

dest. Beside that we are on the ground floor, 
in fa 61, on the ground, with a wood floor be- 
tween, and have no curtains — but one soon 
gets used to that. 

First I must fix Arnell, then put Straight 
to bed and then myself, so good-night. 
Best love, 

Neil 



[FROM A LETTER TO MISS J. M. ] 

Dec. 2 

I know your feeling about Bernard Shaw — 
and share it myself to a great extent, but do 
read" Captain Brassbound's Conversion/' The 

lady in it is so exactly like it made me 

scream with laughter all the time. His plays, 
when they are " Pleasant/' are extraordinarily 
clever, at least they seem so here, where 
books are scarce. Emerson is all very fine at 
home, but to truly appreciate him one has to 
be thousands of miles away from everybody. 
I revel in him for hours after the good little 
Mukdenites are all in bed and asleep. We 
don't have any too much time to read, luckily, 
for our books are few, and I can tell you, you 
turn to serious things w T hen that's the case, 
with only a few things like Shaw in odd mi- 
nutes. 

C l6 5 -} 



LETTERS 

The British and German Consuls are both 
up here, and their Consulates open, so we have 
a very welcome addition to our societv. Last 
week we were very gay — went to a dinner 
where there were nine whites! Thev were 
all missionaries and we couldn't smoke, but 
as they had all been here through, or rather 
up to the Boxer times it was very interesting 
indeed. There are four missionary-lady-doc- 
tors here, who travel over Manchuria alone, 
stopping in Chinese inns and travelling in 
carts. I can understand how a man could do it, 
but how women can is more than I can see. 
Religion as they have it is far stronger a thing 
than I ever conceived of. 

My Chinese has come to a standstill. Now 
I feel as one does when one looks at the 
stars. It seems such a task one cannot grasp it. 
Dr. Ross the other day asked me how I was 
getting on, and said that it wouldn't mean 
anything for a year at least ! Unfortunately I 
have too quick an ear, and can repeat sen- 
tences, but the characters mean nothing — 
nor does the sentence have much meaning. 

Have I written you since we first saw the 
children being sold? It is quite common now 
on account of bad times, and the early cold, 
but I never can see it without a nasty feeling 
around my waistcoat. They are well treated, 

C l 66 H 



LETTERS 



I believe, but the family relation is so strong 
among the Chinese that it must be an awful 
thing for both. Poor China! 



[FROM A LETTER TO LIEUTENANT F.M.,U.S. N.] 

Mukden, December \th 

Dear Mr. M.: 

It suddenly seemed to me that we were quite 
near neighbours now, so I thought I would 
say howdy. It's true that when I was in Pe- 
king I learned you were in Tokio, but things 
have been moving pretty quickly, and what 
time I have had for letters I have written 
home in. 

By the way, they were quite sore at Peking 
that you had never visited them, though why 
a Naval Attache should wander as far from 
the sea as that I do not know ! However, if 
you do you had better brave the perils of the 
railway, and come by way of Mukden. . . . 

I am out here in the Consulate, and have 
found just the life I want to lead. There is 
always plenty to do, in fa6t, we could work 
night as well as day and still have work left. 
But the climate! It is perfe6t; a trifle cold, 
but clear and invigorating. After a five or six 
mile hard walk one feels in splendid fighting 
trim. We are living in a Chinese inn — with 

[ 167 ] 



LETTERS 

no very bright outlook for a house ; still if you 
come you will find a bed and a welcome. 

I left home at the end of August, straight 
from Newport, which is just as nice as ever. 
I had been laid up for some weeks before I 
started, so I had the full benefit of the boats. 
The family, I believe, are going to winter in 
San Francisco this year, but it was n't defi- 
nitely settled when I left, nor have I heard yet. 
Sincerely, 

Nelson Fairchild 



[FROM A LETTER TO HIS BROTHER] 

Consular Service, U. S. A. 
Mukden, December 5, 1906 

Dear J — : 

We are still houseless and at the same hotel 
living in filth, but as happy as can be, with 
only a spare minute once in a while. The num- 
ber of reports that we are sending off will 
keep the State Department busy, that is, if they 
ever read them, and keeps us working pretty 
much of the time all day. My Chinese lessons 
have suffered in consequence, but I hope to 
pick up a fair amount in the course of the win- 
ter, though the characters are the devil. Our 
home mail is about as erratic as it well could 
be, we have n't had letters for two weeks. . . . 
Mr. Fulford, the British Consul-General, 



LETTERS 

and Mr. Mezger, the German, have arrived, 
so we are nearly complete here now, yet the 
total number of Europeans here is only 33, 
most of them missionaries. These, however, 
are a mighty nice lot, and work like the Devil 
for the Chinese — with no very great results; 
a possible 2,000 out of 300,000 inhabitants 
are Christian, though the missionaries have 
all been here since before the Boxer days. It 
is awfully queer to see how everyone dates 
events from the Boxers, though several have 
been here for twenty odd years. Outside of 
the consular and missionary bodies there are 
three merchants, an American, an English and 
a German, which after all is a perfectly fair 
division. The American gives us a fair amount 
of trouble owing to his imperfect knowledge 
of Chinese, which lets him in to all sorts of 
crooked deals with the Chinese merchants 
who want a foreigner in the firm in order to 
escape taxes. I don't think he has sense 
enough to go wrong by himself, and he so 
far has saved himself every time by trying to 
get the Viceroy's consent through us each 
time his allies try a new game. He is perfectly 
honest, but certainly is n't making money, yet 
his is the best chance in the world, — the first 
American trader in Manchuria. If only some 
one would form a company on the lines of 
the British- American Tobacco Co. they would 
C 169 H 



LETTERS 

pull in money faster than they could count it. 
That Company's sales jumped from 100 cases 
of 30,000 cigarettes each, last September, to 
somewhere nearly 35,000,000 cigarettes for 
one of the past months. Naturally I see a good 
deal of the agent here, the English merchant, 
and though I know the last month's sales I 
told him that I would not send them home, as 
he ought not have told me. This was done, 
too, when the country was still under Japa- 
nese military control, and when their own mo- 
nopoly was given transportation by rail — the 
B.-A. T. Co. did a great deal by cart — and 
when the other merchants were not allowed 
to have a look in at any of the best locations, 
all of which had been grabbed for "Military 
necessity/' . . . 

After that tirade I '11 stop. Do sometimes 
when you have time write and tell me how 
things are going both in Boston and New 
York. M- - wrote that Mrs. H. was ill. I hope 
she is better. Love to everyone, especially any 
member of the family and C — and the three 
children, though I don't suppose the baby ever 
heard of me nor could understand if he had. 
As ever, 

Neil 



: 170 n 



LETTERS 

[TO HIS SISTER-IN-LAW] 

Mukden, December 8 

Dear C— : 

A day or two ago I got a letter from M — 
telling me of your mother's sad death. Though 
I knew that she had been unwell it never 
occurred to me how serious it was, and when 
her news came it was a terrible shock. 

Those early winters, when you and Jack 
were just married and made such a pleasant 
home for G — and me — I grew to know Mrs. 
H. quite well and, like anyone who came in 
contact with her, at once fell under her great 
charm. What your loss is, I can understand 
more readily for this. Her wonderful courage 
and calm have made me think a great deal, 
and were a constant source of happiness to 
me when I suffered any petty disgruntlement. 
There never was a more delightful compan- 
ion either for work or play, and I look back 
on those days when we tried, or rather she 
succeeded and I followed way behind, to make 
flower-pots. The way she could turn her hand 
to everything was marvellous; the more so 
when one knew how many worries there 
must have been. 

Dear C — , I wish I were n't so far away and 
that there was some little thing I could do to 
help you. My heart is at home a great deal 
i 171 3 



LETTERS 

these short days and long evenings, and some- 
times at night I can almost hear you playing 
— then I suddenly wake up and realize how 
far away and helpless I am. Nevertheless my 
heart has been with you a great deal of late. 
Love, 

Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Mukden, December 9 

Dearest M--: 

Your letter of the ist November telling of 
Mrs. H/s death, one of a day or two earlier, 
and one from Gam came this week, the first 
mail for two weeks. Mrs. H/s death was a 
shock, for somehow I didn't realize how ill 
she was. Poor C — ! I wrote her after one of 
your letters in which you told me that her 
mother was ill, trying to be cheerful, and I am 
quite sure it was posted after her death. That's 
the trouble of being so far away. 

No house yet, though we are trying to put 
through a deal for one now, which may give 
us a palace in ten days or so. The row with 
Chao (our landlord) ended in a compromise, 
but there is considerable hard feeling, espe- 
cially since we have discovered that he raised 
the price of one house we looked at 4000 taels ! 
That we rub into the missionaries, for he is 

C 172 J 



LETTERS 

(or was, till he took a second wife) a pillar 
of the church. . . . 

Two more families of missionaries we have 
called on this past week : the Gillespies and 
Robertsons, and they are delightful. The Rob- 
ertsons' is the smallest place yet; a three- 
"chien" house — that is, three rooms about 
12 x 16, but so nicely fixed up and "lived in/' 
Dr. Ross and Dr. Christie built large Euro- 
pean houses after the Boxer times — while 
Mr. Fulton, Mr. Turley, the Robertsons and 
Gillespies all fixed over Chinese houses. 

Dr. Ross is a splendid old patriarchal sort 
of man with a long white beard. Mr. Turley 
belongs to the Bible Society and is rarely at 
home, so we never see him. Mr. Fulton is a 
truly deeply thinking man and very religious. 
The fa6l is, they are all nice. 

Lately we have been seeing a good deal of 
the various merchants, who now flock to us 
every day and look at catalogues or ask ad- 
vice. We know so many that every time I 
walk along the Ssu Ping Gai I meet a lot! 
The fact is, we are marvelled at, for we work 
all day; Mr. Mullin, the Postmaster, keeps 
asking me what we find to do when we send 
off $2 or $3 worth of mail every day. The 
poor State Department will be flooded by us ! 

It's settled into cold weather now, at least 
the others find it so, but it is not very diflfer- 

L 17s ] 



LETTERS 

ent from Boston, and when there isn't too 

much wind it's delightful for walking. If this 

press of work ever lets up, I shall take a trip 

north for shooting, and get a little material 

for more reports. 

These are my newest pictures. I don't keep 

any, but have all the films in case you want 

any more. T 

J Love, ^ T 

Neil 



Our quarters at the Mao-lin Kwan 



Ifang 


3P-, 


Room for 
two boys and 


ICang 


K'ang 


Straight's 
room and 

general 
wash-place 

•■■ , J 


Reception- 
room, office 
and dining- 

, 1 


Office 
typewriter, 
presses, etc. 


My bedroom 
and Chinese 
writer's office 

1 1 


Hall 



The rooms are 1 2 x 1 2, not counting the raised 
K'ang, on which we have beds in our two 
rooms, a bookcase (with our stores behind it) 
on the reception-room one, and official sup- 
plies on the other. We face south, so we get 
the afternoon sun. The * shows the window 
to be seen in the photograph. In the reception 
and sitting room we have a large roll-top desk, 
fourchairs, a table, two easy-chairs, two book- 
cases, two Korean chests!! Puzzle, find the 
C 174 ] 



LETTERS 

floor. These additions came after I drew the 
chart, which was meant to go earlier, but for- 
gotten. 



[FROM A LETTER TO J.G.F.] 

Mukden, December 9, 1906 

... I am laid up with as cunning a little cold 
in the head as anyone ever had the luck to 
get, all because, to swell the dignity of our 
country, I appeared at some function. It simply 
doesn't matter how much you put on, you 
get back home shivering, call for hot drinks 
(and get tea) and bundle into bed. . . . 

We manage to keep ourselves pretty busy 
every day, and rarely get out of the house be- 
fore 3.30, and as it gets dark about 4.30 there 
is very little time to do anything. Then also 
there is a good deal to do in the evening, 
Chinese, clipping the papers, reading law, — 
a thing I have begun to do, — so that we don't 
seem to have any time for ordinary reading 
or letters, though Straight has solved that by 
sitting up till 1 2 or so ; but that is altogether 
too strenuous for me. 

Ideas have ceased, dinner is ready ( we dress 
every night) and I feel too stuffed up to think. 
So, so long. 

Deild Fairjild 

1 175 ] 



LETTERS 

[ TO HIS BROTHER ] 

Mukden, December 12 

Dear B— : 

Your letter of October 28 got here to-day, 
and welcome it was. I don't know what came 
over me to write to Paris from the train, but 
I rather guess my wheel was running round 
too hard. However, you will probably find it, 
unless the Russky postmaster found the stamp 
alluring, or the contents questionable — but, 
as Grant wrote, I need n't be pitied for study- 
ing Chinese, for they would find my writing 
harder than ever I could find theirs, so the 
Russian censor would have had a hard time. 

To first answer your various questions : the 
best way to send books, letters, thimbles or 
any other articles of furniture is by Marseilles 
and Shanghai, for the Chinese port is safe, 
and the Russian too. . . . Out of two months' 
"Lifes" which ought to be here I have two 
copies, and not one of Straight's "Collier's" 
has yet turned up. However, it is just as well, 
for we have no time for them — not that we 
shan't have plenty for any books that might 
find their way, especially Monsignor Vay's. 

The domestic situation is unchanged. We 
are looking at two houses, but expect them 
to vanish into thin air, which is a most re- 

1 176 2 



LETTERS 

markable custom of the Mukden houses, and 
we continue to live in the luxury of the Mao- 
lin Kwan. In spite of the luxury it is rather 
inconvenient; for example, last night I was 
peacefully dreaming about shooting and was 
very annoyed to be continually pursued by a 
Japanese voice. Finally it got too persistent 
and I waked, only to find a little man with a 
dark-lantern bending over me and shouting 
the Japanese equivalent of " wake up/' When 
I was thoroughly awake I asked him in my 
most exquisite Billingsgate what he was do- 
ing, upon which he handed me a telegram, 
all this at 2 a.m. in my own room! I was so 
mad that I nearly shot him, but finally got 
Arnell ( he has come to live with us ) and sent 
the brute away, I saying what I thought, Ar- 
nell putting it into polite, flowery Japanese. 
By that time we were both awake, and the 
messenger having gone (he wasn't satisfied 
with my signature and wanted me to put the 
impression of my thumb on the receipt) we 
decided to wake Straight, and ask him to read 
the important thing, which was in code. Ac- 
cordingly we did it, and poor Straight unlocked 
the code and found that it was written in the 
Blue one instead of the Red one which we 
have, so we don't know yet what it means. 
Arnell and Straight both thought it was bad 

[ 177 ] 



LETTERS 

news, whereas I was too angry to, and merely 
wanted to kill the messenger. 

We are having a fine time politically here, 
for the Chinese are trying all sorts of games 
(it being a brand-new field, with no prece- 
dents ) , each of which we politely but firmly 
throw down. It seems too bad, for Chao (the 
Viceroy's name is the same as our old rascal 
landlord's ) , I think, means well, and wants to 
reform China, but he has no conception of 
what a treaty means, and runs against them 
all, every time. Then besides that, it is a per- 
fectly new country, and we are busy as the 
devil, getting off reports, etc. 

To-morrow we are going to give a swell 
dinner for Mr. Fulford, Mr. Mezger and Mr. 
Oliver. Our Boys are frightfully excited (it is 
the whole Consular body, except the Japa- 
nese ) , especially because we have given them 
uniforms, all silk, for $30 ( Mex. ) for the two. 
It is funny to think of Straight being senior to 
all the others, when you realize that he is at 
least ten years younger than Mr. Mezger and 
twenty or twenty-five younger than Mr. Ful- 
ford. 

What do you think of my letter-head and 
bookplate? It is my discarded name; discard- 
ed, because the Legation gave me a three- 
charafter one, not half as swell, for two mean 
Manchus. Personally, I think it is rather fancy. 



LETTERS 

Now to bed — but first lock my door, with 
a chain, and woe to any telegram that comes ! 
Love to E — . 

Neil 



[TO HIS MOTHER] 

Mukden, December 15 

Dearest M — : 

Just a few minutes ago we had the mail, and 
in it a letter from S — from the Southern Pa- 
cific, dated November 18, — and I still have to 
send things to Newport, having no other ad- 
dress! I am awfully glad that you are really 
there now, it ought to be delightful, and we 
are nearer each other. 

This has been a hectic, broken-up week, 
the Royal Commissioners are back, and every- 
thing on end; just now we are waiting for 
a call from them by proxy, after which we 
have to represent our nation at the opening 
of a petty Japanese Bazaar Exhibition, which 
means hours, and poor food. In the first place, 
Arnell went to Dalny on Tuesday; next, — 
Wednesday, — the Royal Commission arrived, 
and we had to go down and meet them. 
That night we gave a dinner to Mr. Mezger 
and Mr. Fulford, an historic event ; the first 
meeting of the Consular body, which was a 
great success, and didn't break up till near 

C 179 ] 



LETTERS 

midnight, which considering our youth and 
their age was a great compliment. Next day 
we had to call on the Princeling and talk a min- 
ute about his trip, then off to look at a house 
which the Japanese had given up. . . . Then a 
long walk with Mr. Oliver down to the river 
Hun, tea with him, home to work and now 
here we are again, waiting, and rowing with 
the landlord about glasses for the Proxy to 
drink out of. Chao gets more insufferable 
every day, and no house in sight, though we 
are playing our last card for one. 

Apart from all this, life flows on the same 
as ever, regular work, lots of interest, two 
hours' walk every day and sleep. Our domes- 
tic staff is excellent, but we nearly had a row 
because of the Christian washerman whom 
one of the missionaries gave us. According 
to custom he has either to pay a "squeeze" 
to the Boys or wash their clothes free. My 
old rascal tried to squeeze, and I ordered him 
to stop, or pack up and go. That unfortu- 
nately made the washerman think he could 
do as he liked, and now my new treasure is 
kicking because his things are not washed. I 
fancy I shall have to go without any clean 
things, for I simply won't part with my Boy, 
he is too good. Straight is awfully jealous! 

It is awfully funny to watch my Boy pro- 
tect me in the morning, for, as I have said, 
C 180 ] 



LETTERS 

we have no privacy. The coolies want to wash 
up my room when I get up, and Clarence 
comes in and looks round at the ceiling; then 
as soon as my Boy's back is turned he starts 
work. My Boy gets very angry and shoos 
him out, till I go out for my bath. It happens 
every morning, — part of a game, I think. 

Have I ever described a Japanese bath? It 
is a wooden box, about four feet each way, 
filled with water which is heated to about 
1 io° by a fire underneath it. In you go ( very 
slowly) and soak for about two minutes, then 
hop out and sponge off with icy (literally, 
nowadays ) water. There is nothing like it to 
make one feel splendidly. The only trouble is 
they only change the water once a day, but 
no one is allowed to use it before we do, so 
that objection is more or less overcome. . . . 

I had a letter from B — last week, written 
on the steamer, but outside of that and S — 's, 
I haven't heard since your letter of the ist 
November. He told me to tell you to send 
over the Vay book after you had all finished 
it — I mean, out here. They tell me it ought 
to be good, especially as he really knows 
what he was writing about. I haven't been 
reading anything lately, that is, new things, 
there is no time; but I have just discovered 
the "Noftes." Really they are perfectly de- 
lightful — everyone ought to read them. 

C 181 3 



LETTERS 

Since the above, hours and hours have 
elapsed. The Proxy came, one Chu, a Yale 
graduate, who staved half an hour or so, 
talked nicely in excellent English, refused 
champagne and asked for a cocktail ( ! ) which 
we managed to oonco6t out of all sorts of in- 
gredients that don't belong in em. Then we 
bolted our lunch to rush off to the Exposition, 
but just before we started, a merchant, Tien 
Ho Tung, came in to ask advice about paying- 
taxes. Half an hour later we got off, it then 
being 2.15, and the invitation reading for 1. 
However, the East is slow, and it hadn't 
begun, though everyone (Eulford, Mezger, 
Siebert, Christie, Oliver, Mr. and Mrs. Ross, 
Mr. and Mrs. Fulton, that is) was there. Most 
of them had thought it meant lunch, but we had 
speeches till g.15, then a walk round the Ba- 
zaar, and finally a cold lunch in a colder tent 
at about 4. Then Mr. Hujiwara had us all in 
for tea, and at last we got back here, worn out. 
These Japanese entertainments are not as 
good as the Chinese — both are awful — for 
they are semi-European and dreadfully arti- 
ficial. . . . However, they are Fairly interesting 
once — and thank Heaven, there won't be 
another for some months. 

Love, 

Neil 

[ 182 ] 



LETTERS 

[FROM A LETTER TO H. G. M.] 

Mukden, December 16, 1906 

. . , Another little errand you might do, if 
your kindness remains as it used to be, go to 
1 8 Waverley Place and get me a couple ( half 
a dozen would not be amiss ) of those Fibrin- 
oid collars, 15%, provided they look at all 
possible. This nation of washermen is certainly 
h — 1 on linen of all kinds. . . . 

The Japanese opened a Bazaar yesterday. . . . 
We were asked for 1 p. m., but Straight and 
I had some one with us, and lunched, and ar- 
rived at 2.30. . . . Two hours of speeches fol- 
lowed. Then we looked at the show. Then 
went into another tent for a cold lunch. . . . 
The last affair 1 11 go to for a long time, for 
I waked up last night with neuralgia in my 
teeth and head. . . . 

Whoop up the market, marry lots of money, 
and come out here on your wedding-trip. 
Meantime write me some gossip. 



r 183 3 



''When 11 v are dead^ seek for our resting-place 

Not in the earth, but in the fiearts of men." 

(jalAlu'd-din rumi) 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

[FROM W. PHILLIPS 
SECRETARY OF LEGATION AT PEKING] 

American Legation, Peking 

December 27, '06 

. . . Mr. Straight telegraphed to me to come 
at once to Mukden, and I started at once, but 
as it is a three-days journey, I could not ar- 
rive until the fourth day after the accident. 
On the day after my arrival the funeral ser- 
vices were held, conducted by Dr. Ross, in 
the temporary quarters of the Consulate, at 
10 a.m. There were only a few foreigners 
present, because, as you know, Mukden is a 
deserted spot, but there were several English 
missionaries, the British and Japanese Con- 
suls, and a few Chinese officials. The Viceroy 
sent a guard of honor of one hundred men, 
and we followed the coffin to the little Rus- 
sian cemetery about two miles distant, where a 
temporary grave had been prepared. Straight 
and I walked directly behind, the others 
followed. Once we passed an old temple, and 
the sombre and discordant bell rang out 
sadly. Another prayer was said at the grave, 
and then the coffin, wrapped in the flag and 
covered with Chinese artificial flowers, was 
lowered, while the bugles were sounded. We 
decided that Neil should be removed to the 
C 185 ] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

foreign graveyard at Newchwang, which is a 
much more permanent and attractive place. I 
could not help feeling that the little Russian 
compound would disappear within a few years, 
and I strongly recommended the plan of only 
a temporary burial at Mukden. 

I can assure you that Neil had been happy 
and absorbed in his work up to the last. When 
he was in Peking, a short time ago, we were 
all very much impressed with his earnest- 
ness and very real interest in the life which 
he was to follow, and I was especially struck 
at the time by what seemed to me a new en- 
thusiasm. 

I cannot tell you how deeply I grieve over 
his death. . . . 

William Phillips 



[FROM W. D. STRAIGHT 
CONSUL-GENERAL AT MUKDEN] 

[Not dated} 

If I might see you I could tell you what I 
feel, how much I feel, but it is hard to write. 
It all seems so impossible that I cannot realize 
what has been taken from us — what has come 
upon us. 

He was the sunshine of the office and in our 
lives, and was always so gay and cheerful and 
t 186 ] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

unselfish, so kind to everyone and thoughtful 
of others, that, as I have already written you, 
he was an example to us and an inspiration. 
He was so interested in everything, and so 
keen about his work — and so willing to learn 
and to do the drudgery that must always be 
done. Here everyone liked him very much, 
and to-day nearly all of the little community 
have come to offer their sympathy to you. The 
Viceroy has been here, and will furnish a guard 
of honor. He told me that he could hardly 
sleep last night when he heard the news, and 
said that he had liked Neil very much from the 
first, for his manner would go straight to the 
hearts of the Chinese. The flags have been at 
half-mast to-day, and offers of help come in 
from all sides. 

For me he was everything, for we used to 
talk and talk about all manner of matters ; 
and his ideals were so high and his thoughts 
so clean, that it meant everything to me here, 
where it is so lonely and far away. He could 
see all the bright spots and none of the som- 
bre ones, and it all seemed fresh and wonder- 
ful again in seeing it with him and through his 
eyes. 

He seemed always so happy that I was sur- 
prised sometimes, for I was afraid that with 
time it might pall, and that he might regret 
the life he had left behind, where he had al- 
[ 187 ] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

ways been a centre, living and enjoying things 
with so many. 

Willard Straight 



[Not dated] 

To-day came a letter from Tientsin, from a 
man through whom he had ordered a Christ- 
mas present for me ; the rumor had only just 
reached him, and he was broken-hearted. 

From Newchwang come the letters from 
those who had known him and liked him dur- 
ing the few hours that he was there, and they 
all ask me to express to you their deep sym- 
pathy. 

Dr. Christie, who came that night, and Mr. 
Fulton, who was also here, and myself did 
everything at the last, and he wore a blue suit, 
a color of which he was so fond. 

We had services here, and again at the 
grave, and the Viceroy sent bearers, twenty- 
four, and a guard of honor. The officials have 
all been very kind, and they too have asked 
me to express their sympathy. 

In a day or two, when arrangements have 
been made, I shall move him to Newchwang, 
where there is a pretty ground, with trees and 
flowers, and in the shadow of an old church 
with a quaint English tower, that has been a 

C »«8 ] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

landmark for years, since the port was first 
opened. 

I held him at the last, and hoped and prayed 
that there might be some relief, that he might 
be spared, but there was no hope. Although 
the doctors came as soon as possible, there 
was nothing to be done. He suffered no pain, 
the bullet had gone into the brain. 

Willard Straight 



[Not dated] 

You will wish to know of what we did here 
at the last. There were many wreaths and 
some beautiful mistletoe, and all of these we 
put on the casket. The Boys were heart- 
broken, and the last day brought chrysanthe- 
mums ; where they found them I don't know, 
for flowers were terribly difficult in this cold 
weather. Then they wished to walk with us 
to the cemetery which was two miles away, 
and to which we followed the bier on foot. It 
was very cold and the ground was covered 
with snow, but the day was clear and fine 
save the biting wind. There was a prayer and 
a short service, and that was all. It was very 
simple. 

He was so kind to everyone. He looked 
after the sick and sent them books and papers ; 



t 189 1 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 

French journals to the poor lonely priests and 
the papers that came in to those who other- 
wise would never have seen them. He looked 
after poor Arnell whose eyes went wrong. 
Willard Straight 



Newchwang, February 16, 1907 

We had only a very simple service, and the 
casket was wrapped in the flag. Newchwang 
is only a little place, and the foreign commu- 
nity is very small, but the people are open- 
hearted and very kindly, and had received 
him as one of themselves, even though he had 
been here for such a short time. Yesterday 
almost every man in the community came to 
the cemetery and stood bareheaded. It was a 
beautiful day, clear and cold and bright, a 
typical Manchurian day ; and all will be very 
quiet and peaceful. 

Near by is the grave of a brave missionary 
who was killed by the Chinese, while in ser- 
vice too, and there are many others who have 
all done their best in this far country. He too 
has done his best, and made us better able to 
meet the world with a brave heart. 

Willard Straight 



C 190 ] 



NELSON FAIRCHILD 



Massachusetts is ever present to those 
whom she has reared. Her high standards 
and ideals accompany them into whatsoever 
land they go, and wherever they may be they 
are always her sons. 

Some have left names that will endure in 
history ; some, no less noble, that history will 
guard only in the lives and deeds of other 
men. 

Some rest within our Commonwealth, some 
in distant lands, but whether at home or abroad, 
far-famed or cherished in the hearts of few, 
they have lived and died a tribute and an eter- 
nal legacy to the soil that bore them. 



C 191 ] 



" Tet, stricken heart, remember, remember 
How of human days he lived the better fart. 
April came to bloom and never dim December 
Breathed its killing chills upon the head or heart. 

"Doomed to know not Winter, only Spring, a being 
Trod the flowery April blithely for awhile, 
Took his fill of music, joy of thought and seeing, 
Came and stayed and went, nor ever ceased to smile. 

"Came and stayed and went, and now when all is 
finished, 
Tou alone have crossed the melancholy stream, 
Tours the pang, but his, his, the undiminished 
Undecaying gladness, undeparted dream. 

"All that life contains of torture, toil, and treason, 
Shame, dishonour, death, to him were but a name, 
Here, a boy, he dwelt through all the singing season 
And ere the day of sorrow departed as he came." 

R. L. STEVENSON 



Davos, 1 88 1 






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